THE
PROSTRATE STATE:
SOUTH CAROLINA UNDER NEGRO
GOVERNMENT.
JAMIES SXIKE,
"RMNSTROF  IE.    ATS  T TH  IIAU,.
]uSATME~ISTER OF WHE UNITED ST~ATES AT THE HAGUE,
NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
549 & 551 BPOADWAY,
1874.
i:
3 7 F- >L'Z
BY.....
J6. 
ENTERED, accolding to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by
D. APPLETON & CO.,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
PRE1FACE.
THE following pages were written in South
Carolina, during the session of the Legislature, in
the months of February and March, 1873.  They
take their coloring from the scenes by which the
writer was surrounded. This explanation is necessary, to account for the form in which a portion of the contents is presented.
I have no positive theory in regard to the
future of South Carolina. Fifteen years ago,
when emancipation seemed distant, I ventured
the prediction that the Gulf States would finally
have to be surrendered to the blacks; but the
abolition of slavery having been suddenly precipitated, the conditions of the problem have become
changed.  Yet there are those who believe such
is now the inevitable fate of several of the Southern States, South Carolina included. In the following pages I have combated this sentiment as
regards South Carolina, and have pointed out the
-i 
PREFACE.
method by which it seems to me its Africanization can be prevented, and suggested some of the
considerations which should inspire an effort to
prevent such a result.  But it may turn out that
there is a wide difference between what can be
done and what will be done. - The white people
of South Carolina may permit what they might
prevent. The decision of the case rests mainly
with them. But their course in the present crisis
of their fortunes is not a matter of interest to
themselves alone; it deeply concerns the people
of the other States, and it is their attention that
I invoke to the following exposition. The facts
challenge the thoughtful consideration of every
man who does not believe that our political systemn can stand any thing and defy any thing.
New You, Oct., 1873.
4 
C ONTEN T S.
CHAPTER L
A Black Parliament.-Humiliation of the Whites.-Society bot.
tom-side up.-An Extraordinary Spectacle...    9
CHAPTER II.
The Negro as a Legislator.-His Fluency in Debate.-Earnestness
and Good-Humor his Characteristics.-The Future of the
State.. 17
CHAPTER IIL
Villainies of the State Government.-The Present Government no
Improvement on the Last.-The Treasury drained by the
Thieves.-Venality of the Press........         25
CHAPTER  IV.
The Pure Blacks the Ruling Power.-Rivalries of Blacks and
Yellows.-Carpet-bag Rule wellnigh over.-The State gov    erned by its own Citizens......   32
CHAPTER V.
Sambo as a Critic on the White Man.-Beverly Nash the Ne    gro.-Views of a Carpet-Bagger declining Business. 39
CHAPTER VI.
The Raw Negro as a Legislator.-His Qualities and Qualifications.
-His Ignorance and Corruption,...   46 
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
Humiliation of the White Minority.-Hostility of the Blacks to
Immigration.-Promise of the Future...      62
CHAPTER VIII.
The Rule of the Negro in South Carolina.-What it is, what it
portends.- Education........    658
CHAPTER  IX.
The Character of the Negro, morally and intellectually
CHAPTER X.
The South as it is, and not as it seems.-The Demands of Justice
and Statesmanship..            71
CHAPTER  XI.'
United States Troops in Carolina.-Destruction of the South
Carolina University.-A Bastard Government.-Reform de.
manded......9
CHAPTER  XII.
The Redemption of the State possible.-What the National Gov    ernment might do.-The State deprived of External Aid   85
CHAPTER XIII.
Immigration its Greatest Need.-A Naked and Desolate State.    Prejudices against White Immigrants still existing.-Greater
Political Tolerance demanded.....   92
CHAPTER XIV.
inducements to Immigrants.-Cheap Lands and a Salubrious Cli
mate.-The Profitableness of Cotton Culture.-An Agricultu   ral Paradise.-The History of Previous Migrations.  99
6
66 
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XV.
Some Detached Observations.....       107
CHAPTER XVI.
Who burned Columbia?-Ruin of the Old Families.-Entire Loss
of Property by Rich and Poor.-Individual Cases of Suffer    ing and Destitution...........             114
CHAPTER XVII.
The Frauds of the State Government.....   120
CHAPTER XVIII.
On the Frauds which relate to the Increase of the State Debt 122
CHAPTER XIX.
On the Frauds practised in the Expenditure of $700,000, appro    priated by the Legislature to buy Lands for the Freed    men...............            150
CHAPTER XX.
The Frauds practised- upon the State in the Cases of the Columbia
& Greenville and the Blue Ridge Railroads..     168
CHAPTER XXI.
On the Frauds and Violence practised in the Elections.  180
CHAPTER XXII.
The Frauds in relation to the Redemption of the Notes of the
Bank of South Carolina.......  191
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Census Frauds.......,  197
CHAPTER XXIV.
Frauds in furnishing StateHouse.....  201 
8                         CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXV.
On General Legislative Corruption.....         206
CHAPTER XXVI.
The New-York Financial Agency.....       212
CHAPTER XXVII.
On Some Causes of Violence and Disorder... 221
CHAPTER XXVIII.
On the Supply of Arms and Ammunition for the Alleged Defense
of the State.-The Governor's Pardons... 228
CHAPTER XXIX.
Cumulative Voting as a Remedy.....         238
CHAPTER XXX.
Governor Scott on the Legislature.-The Committee of the Legis    lature on Governor Scott.-Attorney-General Chamberlain on
them both............. 244
CHAPTER XXXI.
Taxation................    252
CHAPTER XXXII.
On the Character of the Low-Country Negro..  262
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Southern Sentiment since the War.....        268
CHAPTER XXXIV.
On the Labor Question.-Labor abundant and cheap.-Its Ten.
dency to reorganize itself.-A Field for Philanthropic Exer    tion................. 273. 
THE PPOSTRATE STATE.
C1IAPTER I.
A Black Parliament.-Humiliation of the Whites.-Society bot       tom-side up.-An Extraordinary Spectacle.
COLUMBIA, the capital of South Carolina, is
charmingly situated in the heart of the upland
country, near the geographical centre of the
State. It has broad, open streets, regularly laid
out, and fine, shady residences in and about the
town. The opportunity for rides and drives can
hardly be surpassed.   There are good animals
and good turnouts to be seen on the streets at
all times; and now, in midwinter, the weather
invites to such displays. It seems there was a
little real winter here at Christmas and New
Year's, when the whole country suffered such an
excess of sudden cold. There was even skating
and sleighing for a week.  But now there is no
frost, and the recollection of it is dispelled by the
genial spring weather that prevails.
I. 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
Yesterday, about 4 P. M., the assembled wisdom of the State, whose achievements are illustrated on that theatre, issued forth from the StateHouse. About three-quarters of the crowd belonged to the African race. They were of every
hue, from the light octoroon to the deep black.
They were such a looking body of men as might
pour out of a market-house or a court-house at
random in any Southern State. Every negro
type and physiognomy was here to be seen,
from the genteel serving-man to the rough-hewn
customer from the rice or cotton field. Their
dress was as varied as their countenances. There
was the second-hand black frock-coat of infirm
gentility, glossy and threadbare. There was the
stove-pipe hat of many ironings and departed
styles. There was also to be seen a total disregard of the proprieties of costume in the coarse
and dirty garments of the field; the stub-jackets
and slouch hats of soiling labor. In some instances, rough woolen comforters embraced the
neck and hid the absence of linen.  Heavy brogans, and short, torn trousers, it was impossible
to hide.  The dusky tide flowed out into the littered and barren grounds, and, issuing through
the coarse wooden fence of the inclosure, melted
away into the street beyond.   These were the
legislators of South Carolina.
In conspicuous bass-relief over the door of exit,
10 
THE FRUITS OF SLAVERY.
on the panels of the stately edifice, the marble visages of George MecDuffle and Robert Y. Hiayne
overlooked the scene. Could they veritably witness it from their dread abode? What then? "I
tremble," wrote Jefferson, when depicting the
character of Southern slavery, "I tremble when I
reflect that God is just." But did any of that
old band of Southern Revolutionary patriots who
wrestled in their souls with the curse of slavery
ever contemplate such a descent into barbarism
as this spectacle implied and typified  " Mv God,
look at this! " was the unbidden ejaculation of a
low - country planter, clad in homespun, as he
leaned over the rail inside the louse, gazing excitedly upon the body in session.  "This is the
first timle I have been here. I thought I knew
what we were doing when we consented to emnancipation.   I knew the negro, and I predicted
much that has happened, but I never thought it
would come to this.  Let me go."
Here, then, is the outcome, the ripe, perfected
fruit of the boasted civilization of the South, after
two hundred years of experience.  A white community, that had gradually risen from small beginnings, till it grew into wealth, culture, and refinement, and became accomplished in all the
arts of civilization; that successfully asserted
its resistance to a foreign tyranny by deeds of
conspicuous valor, which achieved liberty and
.-~~~~
11 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
independence through the fire and tempest of
civil war, and illustrated itself in the councils of
the nation by orators and statesmen worthy of
any age or nation-such a community is then reduced to this. It lies prostrate in the dust, ruled
over by this strange conglomerate, gathered from
the ranks of its own servile population. It is the
spectacle of a society suddenly turned bottomside up. The wealth, the intelligence, the culture, the wisdom of the State, have broken
through the crust of that social volcano on which
they were contentedly reposing, and have sunk
out of sighlt, consumed by the subterranean fires
they had with such temerity braved and defied.
In the place of this old aristocratic society
stands the rude form of the most ignorant democracy that mankind ever saw, invested with the
functions of government. It is the dregs of the
population habilitated in the robes of their intelligent predecessors, and asserting over them the
rule of ignorance and corruption, through the inexorable machinery of a majority of numbers. It
is barbarism overwhelming civilization by physical force. It is the slave rioting in the halls of
his master, and putting that master under his
feet.  And, though it is done without malice and
without vengeance, it is nevertheless none the
less completely and absolutely done. Let us approachl nearer and take a closer view.  We will
12 
THE WHITE MEMBERS.
enter the House of Representatives.  Here sit one
hundred and twenty-four members. Of these,
twenty-three are white men, representing the re
mains of the old civilization. These are goodlooking, substantial citizens. They are men of
weight and standing in the communities they
represent. They are all from the hill country.
The frosts of sixty and seventy winters whiiten
the heads of some among them. There they sit,
grim and silent. They feel themselves to be but
loose stones, thrown in to partially obstruct a
current they are powerless to resist. They say
little and do little as the days go by. They simply watch the rising tide, and mark the progressive steps of the inundation. They hold their
places reluctantly. They feel themselves to be
in some sort martyrs, bound stoically to suffer in
behalf of that still great element in the State
whose prostrate fortunes are becoming the sport
of an unpitying Fate. Grouped in a corner of the
commodious and well-furnished chamber, they
stolidly survey the noisy riot that goes on in the
great black Left and Centre, where the business
and debates of the tIouse are conducted, and
where sit the strange and extraordinary guides
of the fortunes of a once proud and haughty
State. In this crucial trial of his pride, his manhood, his prejudices, his spirit, it must be said of
the Southern Bourbon of the Legislature that he
13 
'THiE PROSTRATE STATE.
:omports himrnself with a dignity, a reserve, and a
decorum, that command admiration. He feels
that the iron hand of Destiny is upon him. He
is gloomy, disconsolate, hopeless. The gray heads
of this generation openly profess that they look
for no relief.  They see no way of escape.  The
recovery of influence, of position, of control in
the State, is felt by them to be impossible.  They
accept their position with a stoicism that promises
no reward here or hereafter.  They are the types
of a conquered race. They staked all and lost
all. Their lives remain, their property and their
children do not. War, emancipation, and grinding taxation, have consumed them.  Their struggle now is against complete confiscation.  They
endure, and wait for the night.
This dense negro crowd they confront do the
debating, the squabbling, the law-making; and
create all the clamor and disorder of the body.
These twenrty-thlree white men are but the observers, the enforced auditors of the dull and
clumsy imitation of a deliberative body, whose
appearance in their present capacity is at once a
wonder and a shame to modern civilization.
Deducting the twenty-thlree members referred
to, who comprise the entire strength of the opposition, we find one hundred and one remainling.
Of this one hundred and one, ninety-four are colored, and seven are their white allies. Thus the
14 
A BLACK PARLIAMENT.
blacks outnumber the whole body of whites in
the tIouse more than three to one. On the mere
basis of numbers in the State the injustice of this
disproportion is manifest, since the black population 5 relatively four to three of the whites.  A
just rectification of the disproportion, on the
basis of population merely, would give fifty-four
whites to seventy black members. And the line
of race very nearly marks the line of hostile politics. As things stand, the body is almost literally a Black Parliament, and it is the only one
on the face of the earth which is the representative
of a white constituency and the professed exponent of an advanced type of modern civilization.
But the reader will find almost any portraiture
inadequate to give a vivid idea of the bodv, and
enable him to comprehend the complete metamnorphosis of the South Carolina Legislature,
without observing its details. The Speaker is
black, the Clerk is black, the door-keepers are
black, the little pages are black, the chairman
of the Ways and Means is black, and the chaplain is coal-black. At some of the desks sit colored men whose types it wolld be hard to find
outside of Congo; whose costume, visages, attitudes, and expression, only befit the forecastle
of a buccaneer. It must be remembered, also,
that these men, with not more than half a dozen
exceptions, have been  themselves slaves, and
15 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
that their ancestors were slaves for generations.
Recollecting the report of the famous schooner
Wanderer, fitted out by a Southern slave-holder
twelve or fifteen years ago, in ostentatious deftance of the laws against the slave-trade, and
whose owner  and master  boasted of having
brought a cargo of slaves from Africa and safely
landed them in South Carolina and Georgia, one
thinks it must be true, and that some of these
representatives are the very men then stolen from
their African homes. If this be so, we will not
now quarrel over their presence. It would be one
of those extraordinary coincidences that would of
itself almost seem to justify the belief of the direct
interference of the hand of Providence in the affairs of men.
16 
CHAPTER II.
The Negro as a Legislator.-lHis Fluency in Debate.-Earnestness
and Good-Humor his Characteristics.-The Future of the
State.
ONE of the things that first strike a casual
observer in this negro assembly is the fluency of
debate, if the endless chatter that goes on there
can be dignified with this term.  The leading
topics of discussion are all well understood by the
members, as they are of a practical character, and
appeal directly to the personal interests of every
legislator, as well as to those of his constituents.
When an appropriation bill is up to raise money
to catch and punish the Ku-klux, they know exactly what it means.  They feel it in their bones.
So, too, with educational measures. The free
school comes right home to them; then the business of arming and drilling the black militia.
They are eager on this point.  Sambo can talk
on these topics and those of a kindred character,
and their endless ramifications, day in and day
out. There is no end to his gush and babble.
The intellectual level is that of a bevy of fresh 
THiE PROSTRATE STATE.
converts at a negro camp-meeting. Of course
this kind of talk can be extended indefinitely. It
is the doggerel of debate, and not beyond the
reach of the lowest parts. Then the negro is
imitative in the extreme. He can copy like a
parrot or a monkey, and he is always ready for
a trial of his skill. Hie believes he can do any
thing, and never loses a chance to try, and is just
as ready to be laughed at for his failure as applauded for his success. iHe is more vivacious
than the white, and, being more volatile and goodnatured, he is correspondingly more irrepressible.
His misuse of language in his imitations is at
times ludicrous beyond measure. He notoriously
loves a joke or an anecdote, and will burst into a
broad guffaw on the smallest provocation. He
breaks out into an incoherent harangue on the
floor just as easily, and being without practice,
discipline, or experience, and wholly oblivious of
Lindley Murray, or any other restraint on composition, he will go on repeating himself, dancing as
it were to the music of his own voice, forever,
He will speak half a dozen times on one question,
and every time say the same  things without
knowing it. He answers completely to the description of a stupid speaker in Parliament, given
by I;ord Derby on one occasion. It was said of
him that he did not know what he was going to
say when he got up; he did not know what he
is 
"QUICK AS LIGHTNING."
was saying while he was speaking, and he did not
know what he had said when he sat down.
But the old stagers admit that the colored
brethren have a wonderful aptness at legislative
proceedings.  They are "quick as lightning" at
detecting points of order, and they certainly make
incessant and extraordinary use of their knowledge.  No one is allowed to talk five minutes
without interruption, and one interruption is the
signal for another and another, until the original
speaker is smothered under an avalanche of them.
Forty questions of privilege will be raised in a
day. At times, nothing goes on but alternating
questions of order and of privilege.  The inefficient colored friend who sits in the Speaker's
chair cannot suppress this extraordinary element
of the debate. Some of the blackest members
exhibit  a pertinacity of intrusion in  raising
these points of order and questions of privilege that few white men can equal.   Their
struggles to get the floor, their bellowings and
physical  contortions, baffle description.   The
Speaker's hammer plays a perpetual tattoo all
to no purpose. The talking and the interruptions from all quarters go on with the utmost
license. Every one esteems himself as good as his
neighbor, and puts in his oar, apparently as often
for love of riot and confusion as for any thing
else.  It is easy to imagine what are his ideas
19 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
of propriety and dignity among a crowd of his own
color, and these are illustrated without reserve.
The Speaker orders a member whom he has dis covered to be particularly unruly to take his seat.
The member obeys, and with the same motion
that he sits down, throws his feet on to his desk,
hiding himself from the Speaker by the soles of
his boots. In an instant he appears again on the
floor. After a few experiences of this sort, the
Speaker threatens, in a laugh, to call "the gemman " to order. This is considered a capital joke,
and a guffaw follows. The laugh goes round, and
then the peanuts are cracked and munched faster
than ever; one hand being employed in fortifying
the inner man with this nutriment of universal
use, while the other enforces the views of the
orator. This laughing propensity of the sable
crowd is a great cause of disorder.  They laugh
as hens cackle-one begins and all follow.
But underneath all this shocking burlesque
upon legislative proceedings, we must not forget
that there is something very real to this uncouth
and untutored multitude.  It is not all sham, nor
all burlesque. They have a genuine interest and
a genuine earnestness in the business of the assembly which we are bound to recognize and
respect, unless we would be accounted shallow
critics. They have an earnest purpose, born of
a conviction that their position and condition
I
.20 
IT MEANS LIBERTY.
are not fully assured, which lends a sort of dignity to their proceedings. The barbarous, animated jargon in which they so often indulge is
on occasion seen to be so transparently sincere
and weighty in their own minds that sympathy
supplants disgust. The whole thing is a wonderful novelty to them as well as to observers. Seven
years ago these men were raising co-n and cottonunder the whip of the overseer. To-day they are
raising points of order and questions of privilege.
They find they can raise one as well as the other.
They prefer the latter. It is easier, and better
paid. Then, it is the evidence of an accomplished result.  It means  escape and defense
from old oppressors. It means liberty. It means
the destruction of prison-walls only too real to
them.  It is the sunshine of their ]ives.  It is
their day of jubilee.  It is their long-promised
vision of the Lord God Almighty.
Shall we, then, be too critical over the spectacle? Perhaps we might more wisely wonder that
they can do so well in so short a time. The barbarians overran Rome.  The dark ages followed.
But then the day finally broke, and civilization followed. The days were long and weary; but they
dame to an end at last.  Now we have the printing-press, the railroad, the telegraph; and these
denote an utter revolution in the affairs of mankind.  Years may now accomplish what it for-.
21 
THiE PROSTRATE STATE.
merly took ages to achieve.   Under the new
lights and influences shall not the black man
speedily emerge?  Who knows?  We may fear,
but we may hope. Nothing in our day. is impossible. Take the contested supposition that South
Carolina is to be Africanized. We have a Federal Union of great and growing States. It is incontestably white at the centre. We know it to
possess vital powers. It is well abreast of all
modern progress in ideas and improvements. Its
influence is all-pervading. Hilow can a State of
the Union escape it?  South Carolina alone, if
left to herself, might fall into midnight darkness.
Can she do it while she remains an integral part
of the nation?
But will South Carolina be Afiricanized? That
depends. Let us hear the judgment of an intelligent foreigner who has long lived in the South,
and who was here when the war began. He does
not believe it. White people from abroad are
drifting in, bad as things are. Under freedom
the blacks do not multiply as in slavery. The
pickaninnies die off from want of care. Some
blacks are coming in from North Carolina and
Virginia, but others are going off farther South.
The white young men who were growing into
manhood did not seem inclined to leave their
homes and migrate to foreign parts. There was
an exodus after the war, but it has stopped, and
22 
AN IMPORTANT QUESTION.
many have come back.  The old slave-holders
still hold their lands. The negroes were poor
and unable to buy, even if the land-owners would
sel].  This was a powerfiul impediment to the development of the negro into a controlling force in
the State. HIis whole power was in his numbers.
The present disproportion of four blacks to three
whites in the State he believed was already decreasing. The whites seemed likely to more than
hold their own,-while the blacks would fall off.
Cumulative voting would encourage the growth
and add to the political power of the whites in
the Legislature, where they were at present overslaughed.
Then the manufacturing industry was growing in magnitude and vitality. This spread
various new employments over the State, andy
every one became a centre to invite white immigration. This influence was already felt. Trade
was increased in the towns, and this meant increase of white population. High taxes were a
detriment and a drag.  But the trader put them
on to his goods, and the manufacturer on to his
products, and made the consumer pay.
But this important question cannot be dismissed in a paragraph. It requires further treatment. It involves the fortunes of the State far
too deeply, and the duties of the white people and
the interests of the property-holder, are too inti
23 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
mately connected with a just decision of it, to excuse a hasty or shallow judgment.  We  must
defer its further consideration to another occasion.  It is the question which is all.in all to
South Carolina.
24
I 
CHAPTER III.
Villainies of the State Government.-The Present Government no
Improvement on the Last.-The Treasury drained by the
Thieves-Venality of the Press.
TUE  corruption of the State government of
South Carolina is a topic that has grown threadbare in the handling. The last administration
stole right band and left with a recklessness and
audacity without parallel.  The robbers under it
embraced all grades of people.  Tlie thieves had
to combine to aid one another. It took a combination of the principal authorities to get at the
Treasury, and they had to share the plunder
alike. All the smaller fry had their proportions,
the legislators and  lobbymenil  included.  The
principal men of the Scott administration are
living in Columbia, and nobody undertakes  to
call them to account. They do not attempt even
to conceal their plunder. If everybody was not
implicated in the robberies of the Treasury, some
way would be found to bring themn to light. All
that people know is, that the State bonded debt
has been increased from five to fifteen millions,
and that, besides this, there are all sorts of current
2 
TilE PROSTRATE STATE.
obligations to pay afloat, issued by State officers
who had authority to bind the Treasury. They
are all tinctured with fraud, and some of them
are such scandalous swindles that the courts have
been able temporarily to stop their payment.
The whole of the late administration, which
terminated its existence in November, 1872, was
a morass of rottenness, and the present administration was born of the corruptions of that; but for
the exhaustion of the State, there is no good reason
to believe it would steal less than its predecessor.
There seems to be no hope, therefore, that the
villainies of the past will be speedily uncovered.
The present Governor was Speaker of the last
House, and he is credited with having issued during his term in office over $400,000 of pay " certificates " which are still unredeemed and for which
there is no appropriation, but which must be saddled on the tax-payers sooner or later. The Blue
Ridge Railroad scrip is another scandal embracingseveral millions of pure stealings. - The case
is briefly this: Some years ago a charter was obtained for a railroad across the southern end of
the Blue Ridge from South Carolina into Keintuclky. It was a difficult work, and the State
promised it aid on certain conditions.  The road
was never made, and these conditions were never
fulfilled, but since the restoration the State obligations were authorized to be issued. But this was
26 
GOVERNOR AND SENATOR.
not the worst of it. The sum authorized was $1,800,000. It turns out that on the strength of this
authority over $5,000,000 of the scrip has been
issued. It was rendered available to the holders by
being made receivable for taxes, and in this way
has got spread abroad.  The whole scheme has
been for the moment frustrated by a decision of
the courts that the entire transaction is fraudulent
and void from the start.  With  $5,000,000 of
this stuff afloat, which the Legislature can legalize
if the members are paid enough, what hope is
there that the State will escape liability for the
emission?
These are sample itemns of the corruptions of
the late government outside of the increase of the
bonded debt. The iniquity laps over into this
administration, for the old Speaker has been
chosen Governor, and the present Legislature has
chosen Patterson Senator.
Yet the last canvass was carried on under the
sting of the charges of corruption against the
Scott administration, and it was hoped that the
present would be an improvement upon that. The
election of Patterson soon after the assembling of
the Legislature, and the manner in which he was
chosen, gave a sudden dash to those hopes. Then
it has been found that some of the most unscrupulous white and black robbers who have, as members or lobbyists, long, plied their nefarious trade
27 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
at the capital, still disfigure and disgrace the present Assembly.  So tainted is the atmosphere with
corruption, so universally implicated is everybody
about the government, of such a character are the
ornaments of society at the capital, that there is
no such thing as anil influential local opinion to be
brought against the scamps.  They plunder, and
glory in it. They steal, and defy you to prove it.
The legalization of fraudulent scrip is regarded
simply as a smart operation. The purchase of a
senatorship is considered only a profitable trade.
Those who make the most out of the operation
are the best fellows. "How did you get your
money? " was asked of a prominent legislator and
lobbyist.  "I stole it," was the prompt reply.
The same man pursues his trade today, openly
and unabashed. A leading member of the last
administration was told he had the credit of having robbed the State of his large fortune.  "Let
them prove it," was his only answer. Meanwhile,
both of them openly revel in their riches under
the very shadow of the lean and hiungry Treasury
whence their ill-gotten gains were filched. As
has been already said, it is believed that the lankl
impoverishment of the Treasury and the total
abasement and destruction of the State credit
alone prevent the continuance of robbery on the
old scale. As it is, taxation is not in the least
diminished, and nearly two millions per aninum are
28 
WHIITE AND BLACK THIEVES.
raised for State expenses where $400,000 formerly
sufficed.  This affords succulent pasturage for a
large crowd.  For it must he remembered that
not a dollar of it goes for interest on the State
debt. The barter and sale of the offices in which
the finances of the State are manipulated, which
are divided among the numerous small counties
under a system offering unusual facilities for the
business, go on with as mnuch activity as ever.
The new Governor has the reputation of spending
$30,000 or $40,000 a year on' a salary of $3,500,
but his financial operations are taken as a matter
of course, and only referred to with a slight shrug
of'the shoulders.
Not only are the residences of the white
thieves who have stolen their half a million or
more apiece, pointed out in Columbia, but here
and there a comfortable abode of some sable ally,
whose sole business is politics.   But while the
colored brother has had to be content hitherto
with smaller sums than the white, which of itself
would account for want of relative show, he is
also more prodigal in his expenditures.  Still his
savings are not to be despised. Sambo takes
naturally to stealing, for he is used to it. It was
his notorious weakness in slavery, and in his unregenerate state lie is far less culpable than the
white. The only way hlie ever had to possess himself of any thing, was to steal it from someboclv
29 
THILE PROSTRATE STATE.
else.  The white man is really the responsible
party for his thefts.  tie may well turn and say
to his former master, "The villainy you teach,
I will execute."   The narration I have given
sufficiently shows how things have gone and are
going in this State, but its effect would be much
heightened if there were time and room for details.
Here is one: The total amount of the stationery
bill of the House for the twenty years preceding
1861 averaged $400 per annum. Last year it was
$16,000. But the meanness of these legislative robberies is not less significant of the character of
the legislation than their magnitude. Last year
the Treasury was in great straits on one or two
occasions for money to anticipate the taxes. Some
of the banks came to its aid and advanced about
$60,000. They were this year compelled to go
before the Committee of Claims to get reimbursed.
The shameless rascals refused to pay the claim
unless they were allowed to bag some 15 or 20
per cent. of it for their share! Another class of
men who are allowed to rob the State freely, comprises those who control the printing-offices. The
influence of a free press is well understood'in South
Carolina. It was understood and dreaded under
the old rdeime, and was muzzled accordingly.
Nearly all the newspapers in the State are now
subsidized.  The State government employs aind
pays them ad libitem. One installment of $75,000
30 
THE VENAL PRESS.
lately went to about twenty-five papers in sums
ranging firom $1,000 to $7,000 apiece, a list of
which was published by order of a vote of the
Legislature a short time ago. Down here these
small weekly sheets can be pretty nearly kept going on these subsidies.  Of course, none of the
deviltry of the State government is likely to be
exposed through them. The whole amount of
the printing bills of the State last year, it is computed (for every thing here has to be in part guesswork), aggregated the immense sum of $600,000.
31 
CHAPTER IV.
The Pure Blacks the Ruling P ower.-Rivalries of Blacks  and
Yellows.-Carpet-bag Rule wellnig,,h over.-The  State gov   erned by its own Citizens.
IT is something more than a question of mere
curiosity, " Who rules this Legislature? "  It is,
to an overwhelming extent, as we have already
seen, composed of colored men. They are of
every hue, running from coal-black through all
the intermediate shades, out to what seems pure
white.  There appears to ba scarcely any limit
to the variety of shades of the colored popuLlation of the State, and their representatives in
the Legislature are hardly less various. There is
really no way of knowing whether any given individual in South Carolina has black blood in
his veins, except by tracing his descent. The
specimens of the whlitened-out colored men in
the Legislature demonstrate this.  But who leads
among this assembly of blacks and yellows?  Is
it the white men?  By no mneans; Sambo has already outgrown that.
There is a strong disposition, among the old
whites of the State, to say and b)elieve that it is 
ABILITY OF THE BLACKS.
the white blood in the negro race which is managing affairs in the new regqine.  The pure blacks
have been set so low in the scale, that it would
show great want of penetration or great misrepresentation on the part of the old masters for
them to admit the capacity of the black to conduct civic affairs, even as well as they are conducted here.  IHence, all credit is apt to be denied them, and given to the element of white
blood that courses in the veins of their lighltercolored brethren.  Let us look about the Legislatutre and see how this is.  The man who unifbrldy discharges his duties in the most uinassuming manner and in the best taste, is the chaplain
of the House. He is coal-black. In the dignities
and proprieties of his office, in what he says, and,
still better, in what he omits to say, he might be
profitably studied as a model by the white politi-c
eal parsons who so often officiate in Congress.
Take the chairman of the House Committee of0
Ways and Means.  He is another full-black man.
By his position, he has charge of the most importalt business of the House.  He was selected for
his solid qualities, and he seems always to conduct himself with discretion. Two of the best
speakers in the House are quite black. Their
abilities are about equal. Their moral qualities
differ.  One appears to be hlonest, and the other to
be a rascal. They are both leaders rather than led.
33 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
Go into the Senate.  It is not too much to say
that the leading man of t[ie Republican party in
that body is Beverly Nash, a man wholly black.
He is apparently consulted more and appealed to
more, in the business of the body, than any man
in it. It is admitted by his white opposition colleagues that he has more native ability than half
the white mene  in the Senate.  There is the Senator from  Georgetown.   He boasts of being a
negro, and of having no fear of the white man in
any respect.  Hie evidently has no love for him.
lie is truculent and audacious, and has as much
force and ability as any of the lighter-colored
members of his race about him. iHe appears to
be also one of the leading "strikers," and is not
led, except through his interests.   To say the
least, none of the lighter-colored members of the
race command any more consideration, or possess any more mnarled influence or talent, than
these and other specimen blacks who might be
named.  So that there seems to be no reason for
the conclusion that it is the white element in
the negro race that is enabling this body of former slaves to discharge the functions of legislators. The full blacks are just as much entitled
to the credit of what is done as the mulattoes.
The future results of this are yet to be developed in affairs here. History indicates that there
is nearly as great an antagonism, when disputes
34 
BLACKS AND YELLOWS.
of race begin, between blacks and yellows as between blacks and whites. The germs of this antagonismr already begin to show themselves here.
The white blood often takes on airs when it is
comnmingled as well as when it is unmingled.
The negro begins, as he did in Hayti, by getting
rid of the white man. After he is disposed of,
the mulatto may be pursued with equal persistence.  If South Carolina should be Aficanized,
the same tendency to make it a pure black government would, it is likely, manifest itself here
as in HIayti. So far, however, the tendency has
only been to get rid of white local leaders; and,
as they have been hitherto mostly carpet-baggers,
there should be nobody to complain. It is such
a merit to drive them out, that nobody stops to
ask or care who follows them and fills their places.
Wherever those places have been filled by colored
men, the change has been advantageous to the
State. This is notably the case in the important
office of State Treasurer, who is a colored man
educated abroad by a rich father, who lived in
Charleston. But, as the Treasury of South Carolina has been so thoroughly gutted by the thieves
who have hitherto had possession of the State
government, there is nothing left to steal. The
note of any negro in the State is worth as much
on the market as a South Carolina bond. It
would puzzle even a Yankee carpet-bagger to
35 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
make any thing out of the office of State Treasurer under such circumstances.
Three of these old carpet-bag leaders, now out
of place, remain in Columbia; each, it is said,
rolling in wealth. They, with a fewv remaining
greedy legislative comrades, whom  Samibo has
not yet dismissed, together with the present Governor, constitute the chief ornaments of that
privileged society.  Speaking generally, then, we
may say that the State government of South
Carolina is no longer in the hands of the carpetbaggers. It is in the possession of her own people. The present State officers, legislative and
executive, are all, or nearly all, South Carolinians. The Governor is a South Carolina white
man, the Lieutenant-Governor, the President of
the Senate, the Speaker of the Hiouse, the Treasurer, and other State officers, are all of the sable
tint, and all are alike natives. South Carolina
has, therefore, to all intents and purposes, the
charge of her own affairs.  The evils she suffers
from the character of' her rulers grow out of the
nature of the constituency which chooses them.
That the State has been victimized, plundered,
and robbed by audacious scoundrels from abroad
is not to be denied.  But at home she is mlainly
rescued from their clutches, and it is not they
whom the people of the State will have much
longer to contend with.  Those who would re
36 
A BLACK  COMBINATION.
form South Carolina ill the future, will hiave
chiefly its native population only to deal with.
The black man of the Legislatur  feels his oats,
and considers that the time has already arrived
when hlie can take care of himself. Ile is not
going to throw away, however, his party relationships, or his party advantages. iHe will use these
in the future as he is now using them, to advance
his own purposes.  He is familiar with the uses
of the caucus and the league, and he feels strongly the advantages of combination and concentration, and he has learned the trick of using them
as well as his white brethren. It is sometimes
said that, in these caucuses and leagues, all legislative affairs are shaped, and that here the white
man bears sway. The action of the Legislature
does not bear out this view.  There was a measure up for consideration  the other day in the
House, in which the negroes broke away and
voted alone. It was a bill for a railroad very
much needed, and to which there could be and
was no honest objection. But some of the corrupt negro leaders thought the corporation could
be forced to pay for the charter, and if the members opposed it they could get pay for their votes.
Accordingly, the great body of the blacks combined, and the bill was refused a passage by a decisive majority, who chuckled over their achievement as they would have done if they had cornered
37 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
a rabbit in a cotton-field. The opposition was so
evidently corrupt and scandalous, that not a single white man on either side in the body would
allow himself to be caught in opposing the measure, and not one white vote was given against it.
This is one instance among many to show that
Sambo is fast getting out of leading-strings, and
is already his own leader in the Legislature.
38 
CHAPTER V.
Sambo as a Critic on the White Man.-Beverly Nasli the Ne.
gro.-Views of a Carpet-Bagger declining Business.
A LAnGE, well-built, showy kind of white man,
with a good voice and fluent speech, was addressing the House yesterday. Standing beside me on
thle floor, near the Speaker's chair, was a snugbuilt, round-headed, young black man, of perhaps
one-quarter white blood.  HIe had full eyes, thick
lips, and woolly hair, and was brusque and lively.
I asked who was the speaker.  "Oh," replied he,
with a toss of the head and a scornful air, "that
is a chuckle-head from. He has got about
as much brains as you can hold in your hand."
AIy pride of race was incontinently shocked.
IHere was a new view. It was no longer the
white man deriding the incapacity of the negro.
The tables were emphatically turned. It was
Sambo proclaiming the white man's inferiority.
Here, then, is something suggestive.  "Soho! my
friend," I said, "you know these people, then;
give us your judgment of them."
He replied:" We  have all sorts here, good, 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
bad, and indifferent."  " Parsons among themi?"
"No,  only a few.  Not so many as formerly.
When I was on the stump at the last election, I
advised the people not to send the parsons. They
gave us a great deal of trouble. They had been
the most corrupt rascals we had in the Legislature. Now they are ]ess plenty. We are improving. But see that darkey now talking.  Isn't
it ridiculous that people should send such representatives   They don't know  any thing, and
haven't even decent manners. There is another
big fool, sitting there.  Look at him.  Why don't
they keep such chaps at home?  They are a disgrace to the colored people."  It was my snugbuilt, thick-lipped, woolly-headed, small-brained,
black friend, you see, who was making these fruitiul comments. The scene grew interesting. " How
about this Senator Patterson business? "'- Well,
we sha'n't know any thing certain about it till it
is investigated. A member was boasting the
other day at a public table, before twenty fellowboarders and members, of his intentions. I-e
said that, where there was money going, a member was a fool who did not get his share. For his
part, he intended to make all he could. Hie was
here for that purpose. A while after Pattersonrl's
election, this man was flush of money.  I-e deposited $250 in bank, and displayed $150 more,
which he said he must reserve for current ex
40 
WHO IS WHITTEMORE?.
peuses.  Where he got his money nobl)ody knows.
All we know is this, that he had none when he
came here." Then our colored friend added, with
great naivete, "Everybody is aware that the
senatorial election is the only money measure
that has been before the Legislature at this session.),
"Who is this Whittemore, just elected by the
Legislature as one of the trustees of the State
Agricultural College? "  " Oh, he is that white
member of Congress who was turned out for selling his cadetship. Hle may do well enough for a
place like that, but I should not vote for him if I
had a seat here. I am a young man, just entered
on a political career, and have a record to make,
and I don't want to be mixed up with such fellows
as Whittemore."
.Here, again, we have virtuous Sambo on the
corrupt white man. This is even more edifying.
Whittemore is a white parson.  Our friend is a
black laymnan.  We cordially sympathize in his
youthful, praiseworthy resolutions. Who knows
hle will not hold to themn steadfastly to the end 
Let us hope.  There is need he shlould.  Ie bears
one of the most honored names in Southi Carolina,
and there is a good sprinkling of white blood in
his veins. flay he live long and illustrate the
virtues of both races!
Hle continued: " You have heard of Beverly
41 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
Nash? There le sits. A full-blooded black man,
six feet high. He is a good-looking man, with
pleasing manners.  He was formerly a slave of
W. C. Preston, and afterward a bootblack at one
of our hotels. Hie is now a substantial citizen,
and a prominent leader in the Senate and in the
State. iHe handles them all. The lawyers and
the white chivalry, as they call themselves, have
learned to let him alone.  They know more  of
law and some other things than he does; but
he studies them all up, and then comes down on
them with a good story or an anecdote, and you
better believe he carries the audience right along
with him. All the laugh and all the ridicule is
on his side. And when hle undertakes a thing,
he generally puts it through, I tell you.- No, sir,
there is now nobody who cares to attack Beverly
Nash. They let him alone right smart."
"They were mostly slaves, these people in the
Legislature? "   " Yes, nearly all, including the
Speaker of the House; not more than five or
six were freeborn."  "And you?"   "XNo, sir,
I never was a slave. I was raised in Charleston.
Myi parents were free and my grandparents before them."
"You have United States troops in Columbia."  "Yes, but we don't need them.  The Kuklux did not bother anybody down here.  We can
take care of ourselves.  Things are in rather a
42 
AN EYE TO THE MAIN CHANCE.
bad fix in the State, financially, but they will all
come out right in the end. This town has suffered
greatly, but it is fast recovering. Sherman's
troops burnt the city. There is no doubt about
that. I myself lost a house, and I ought tO be
paid for it; for if ever the sun shone on a loyal
man I am one. It cost $600 or $700, and could
not be rebuilt for twice the money.   I am
sure I ought to be paid." It was evident our
bright belligerent black friend was not only bent
on a political "career," but also had a thrifty eye
to the main chance.  But why not?  Who  shall
reproach him for that? " There were many black
mercenaries in the Legislature. Nobody could
dispute that. But thle same thing existed elsewhere, didn't it, where things were whiter?" I
declined to contest that view of the case.
Turning to a solitary white man on my way
out of the crowd, he replied, to some remark, that
"to take the State of South Carolina away from
the intelligent white men and hand it over bodily
to ignorant negroes just escaped from slavery, because there happened to be four blacks to three
whites throughout the State, was nothing less
than flat burglary on the theory and practice of
representative government." I suggested, in reply, that the system of cumulative voting might
very much relieve the problem.  If the whites
had their fair proportion of the representation,
43 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
say three to four, would not energy, talent, and
resolution, do the rest?  But he was disinclined
to any hopeful view of the case. tIe said "the
darkey was not going to let up on any of the advantages he had. Hie was more inclined to be
aggressive than yielding. He was improving, but
he was already getting too big for his breeches.
Instead of giving the whites a show, he was rather
thinking of Africanizing the State. Hie felt lie
could go alone.  IIe was beginning to show the
cold shoulder to the white man. What did lihe
want of the white man?  The white man put on
airs. Ile would not associate socially with the
colored brethren, neither would he introduce
them to his daughters. This thing could not last.
Genuine political equality means social equality
with the governing classes. If the white man
could not fraternize with them, then the white
man may go hang.   Sambo will go it alone.
Why not?  The white walking-stick will be dispenised with.  The white figure-head will be removed.  Congo is sufficient unto itself. Every
thing was tending that way. -It appeared like
ingratitude to their white emancipators, and perhaps this consideration would operate to retard
the movement. But look at the evidence. Hiere
were 101 Republicans in the Legislature.  Out of
the whole number only seven were white men;
94 were colored. Did not this look like Aifrican
44 
DOWNFALL OF TIIE CARPET-BAGGERS.
izing thiigs   in the executive government, to
be sure, the Governor was white. He got his
place by dancing at negro balls and speculating
in negro delegates.  But the Lieutenant-Governor
was colored, and the President of the Senate, and
the Speaker of the House, and the Treasurer of
the State, and nearly all the rest of the officials.
Here was Columbia.  Half the population was
white, but its Senator was colored, and its Represenutatives in the Legislature and in the city
government were nearly all colored men.  So
were its policemen and its market-men.  Everybody in office was a darkey. As for the white
carpet-baggers, they were getting shoved out all
round."  ][y informant was undoubtedly well
informed. Hie was more alive to the facts than
another less interested might have been. For he
was an office-holder and a carpet-bagger. tIlis
species have had their day in South Carolina.
This he foresees, and naturally quakes in his
shoes. His track in the State has been one of
robbery and desolation, and there is none to lament his final expulsion, whoever follows.
45 
CHIAPTER VI.
The Raw Negro as a Legislator. —His Qualities and Qualifications.
-His Ignorance and Corruption.
THE highest style of legislative spoliation is
as well understood in the South Carolina Legislature as in any Tanmunany conclave that ever existed. The whites were the original teachers, but
the blacks have shown themselves to be great
adepts as scholars. If any one will take the
trouble to watch the votes of the colored Representatives in Congress from South Carolina, he
will not have to come down into this State to see
the fact illustrated. Messrs. Elliott and Rainey
had no scruples about marching with the white
thieving phalanx and voting double back pay to
themselves.
We maybe surprised at the imitative capacity
of the negro in his new functions, and even at his
occasional exhibition of sense and shrewdness.
When we expect nothing it is a surprise to get
something.  In viewing him in his new relations
it is, however, easy to fall into error both in underrating him and in overrating him. 
THE FREEDMAN'S MODERATION.
No one will dispute the proposition that the
rude and unlettered black man is no better than
the raw and untrained white lman, either morally
or intellectually. It is not necessary to assume
the old slave's inferiority to the ignorant white
man to canvass his fitness as a legislator.
It is sometimes said he showed great mnagnanimity and forbearance in not cutting the throats
of the masters' families when he was emancipated.
His forbearance is a fact that is very generally
recognized with gratitude throughout the South.
Yet it must not be forgotten that he did not even
then know if he himself was fairly out of prison.
He has and had long been in the habit of feeling
the presence of an iron authority over him, and
hle knew it still existed somewhere, when he saw
his master flee and fall before it. Sambo is to
have credit only for that salutary fear that restrainis violence from apprehension of its consequences.  It is not necessary nor just, however, to
take away such credit as fairly belongs to him for
his conduct in the great day of emancipation.
But we must beware of being carried away by
sentimental imaginings.
The ignorant, thievish, immoral, stupid, degraded black man, is then no better than the
white man of the same description. The one is
just as much of a barbarian as the other.  The
black savage is as degraded as the white savage.
'47 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
If hlie has not been, while in slavery, as much of a
criminal as the corresponding class in the old free
States, it is because he has been under stricter
surveillance and more rigid control.
While we concede the existence of much that
is good and even intelligent in the dense masses
of the black population of South Carolina, and
thoroughly sympathize with its rejoicings over its
happy issue from a cruel bondage, and its hopes
of a better future, it is impossible not to recognize
the immense proportion of ignorance and vice
that permeates the mass.  It is fearful to contemplate the thick-coming issues that result from
emancipation and enfranchisement, which are now
barely in the bud and in the blossom. The ignorance manifestedis black with its denseness. And
It is not too much too say that, as the negro, in slavery had absolutely no morcale, hlie comes out of it
entirely without morale. It is in the unpremeditated language of the leading Republican newspaper of Columbia, in advocating compulsory
education, that the negroes are termed "ignorant, narrow-minded, vicious, worthless animals.'
This is the spontaneous criticism of an editor who
is a child and a champion of black rule, betrayed
accidentally into the expression of his real sentiments through the urgency of his advocacy of
compulsory education.  Yet the blacks where he
lives are among the best in the State, and alto
48 
CHIARLESTON'S REPRESENTATIVES.
gether more advanced in enlightenment than the
inhabitants of the purely black counties in the
lower part of the State.
With a constituency thus degraded, what are
we to expect of its representatives?
The existing Legislature is already furnishing
the answer. The black constituency of Charleston itself is to-day represented by men who belong
in the penitentiary. The best that can be said is
that the worst of these -representatives are not
black. But some of the lower counties have legislative specimens of black rascality that it would
be hard to match in any white assembly.
The black men who led the colored forces the
other day against a railroad charter, because their
votes had not been purchased, were models of
hardihood in legislative immorality. They were
not so wily nor so expert, perhaps, as the one white
man who was their ally in debate, but who dodged
the vote from fear of his constituency; but they
exhibited on that, as they have on other occasions, an entire want of moral tone, and a brazen
effrontery in pursuing their venal purposes that
could not be surpassed by the most accomplished
"striker" of Tweed's old gang.  I have before alluded to the fact that on this occasion the blacks
voted alone, not one white man going with them in
opposing the measure they had conspired to defeat
in order to extort money from the corporators.
3
49 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
This mass of black representatives, however
ignorant in other respects, were here seen to be
well schooled in the arts of corruption. They
knew precisely what they were about and just
what they wanted, and they knew the same when
they voted for Patterson for Senator.
This is the kind of moral education the ignorant blacks of the State are getting by being made
legislators. The first lessons were, to be sure,
given by whites from abroad. But the success of
the carpet-baggers has stimulated the growth of
knavish native demagogues, who bid fair to surpass their instructors. The imitative powers of
the blacks and their destitution of morale put
them already in the front ranks of the men who
are robbing and disgracing the State, and cheating the gallows of its due.
It is bad enough to have the decency and intelligence and property of the State subjected to
the domination of its ignorant black pauper mnultitude, but it becomes unendurable when  to that
ignorance the worst vices are superadded.
It was only a short time before the adjournment of the Legislature that the following occurrence took place: Some of the notorious plunderers had, a year or two before, obtained a charter to furnish the city of Charleston with pure
water. They refused to execute the work, in
order to extort a bonus from the city itself for the
50 
A HOT-WATER PROPOSITION.
charter. The city declined to be robbed in this
way, and went to the last Legislature for a
new charter. Everybody was in favor of giving
it except those interested in the old one. The
knaves, by their boldness, were able to defeat the
city and prevent the passage of its bill. This was
accomplished in the Senate by a black man, who
declared his purpose to defeat the measure by
obstructive proceedings. The Senate was a unit
for it, with the exception of three or four interested in the old charter, whom this sable legislator
led. After a wearisome contest, in which all the
arts of legislative obstruction were practised, this
Senator finally moved an amendment providing
for the introduction of hot water, and on this
absurd proposition talked several hours in a night
session, and threatened to talk all night. In this
way the patience of the Senate was finally exhausted, and, with an overwhelming majority in
favor of the measure, gave up the contest with
the black fillibuster, and allowed him to defeat
the bill.  Who  shall say, after this, that Sambo
any longer needs carpet-baggers to lead him.
51 
CGIAPTER VII.
Humiliation of the White Minority.-Hostility of the Blacks to
Immigration.-Promnise of the Future.
IN viewing the condition of South Carolina,
one naturally is led to inquire into the political
situation of its chief city, Charleston. An examination shows that the city is a mere cipher, with
neither representation nor influence in State affairs, and plays no part therein.  The last remaininig privilege of counting and recording its own
vote has been taken away from it by the last
Legislature, apparently for the reason that a majority of its citizens are opposed to the ruling
dynasty. That body has passed an act giving to
the Governor the appointment of commissioners
and sub-commissioners, who are to take entire
charge of the city elections, control the ballotboxes, count the votes, and of course manipulate
the electors in such way as they please. With
such wholly unscrupulous persons as they have
in Charleston to manage elections, this scheme is
equivalent to subverting the right of election altogether. Even under the present system, the con 
CONDITION OF CHARLESTON.
servative and property interests of the city have
no representative in the Legislature. With its
50,000 inhabitants and $30,000,000 of taxable
values, the city proper is literally unrepresented
in the politics of the State. Its vote is merged in
that of the county, which chooses all its Representatives on general ticket. The majority vote
of the city is thus extinguished in the preponderating numbers of the swamp negroes for thirty
miles around, who choose the city's representatives. It thus turns out that, of the whole eighteen
members of the county, nearly all are negroes,
and the few who are not are the lowest and worst
sort of white men.
But, as if this injustice were not enough for
Charleston  to endure, the present Legislature
has passed the act referred to, by which the city
is to be robbed of the poor privilege of purifying her own ballot-box and counting her own
votes!
The question often naturally arises, whether
the two races cannot agree to a partnership rule.
Philanthropy and patriotism unite in the earnest
desire for such an experiment, but the character
of the present dynasty destroys all chances-for the
trial of it. Natural jealousies, instead of being
abated, as they might be, by honesty and fair play,
are aggravated and widened by the conduct of the
dominant power. Instead of there being any dis
53 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
position to remedy the illjustice that prevails,
there is exhibited a purpose to aggravate it, as we
see in the example before ns. An incident has
just occurred which, though not much in itself,
also shows the drift of things: A good white Republican, serving, as postmaster at Charleston, to
the satisfaction of everybody, has just been removed by the Federal Government at Washington, and a black man put in his place.
On this subject, William Cullen Bryant, a man
as distinguished in the political as he is eminent
in the literary world, and a stanch supporter of
General Grant, thus speaks of the President:
" We wish, for example, that he would turn out
the person whom he has just appointed Postmaster of Charleston, and restore to office the
man whom he unwisely, and contrary to the wish
of the people of Charleston, removed."
With this disposition everywhere to crowd the
white man and humiliate the minority, it is wellnigh impossible to initiate such reforms as the
situation demands. One of the methods by which
the minority have proposed to restore to themselves some power in the government of the State,
is by adopting the system now prevailing in Illinois of minority representation, or cumulative
voting; but, with the spirit that prevails in tlhe
State at present, this reform seems almost hopeless, and no echoes of the debates held in the Tax
54 
OPPOSITION TO I31M1IGRATION
payers' Convention on that question are any longer
heard in the State.
And so in the matter of immigration. The
material interests of the State clearly demand it.
But the blacks are against it, as they fear its politieal consequences. A late debate in the Senate
illustrated this.  A  bill was up to exempt new
railroad enterprises and various enumerated kinds
of manufactures from taxation. A black leader
debated it, and in the course of his remarks took
occasion to say he had heard, or overheard, a good
deal from the class of people whom this legislation was designed to benefit; that it was intended
to overslaugh and crowd out the blacks by foreign
immigrants, to be introduced into the State by
wholesale. NXow, he wanted everybody to understand that the blacks did not intend to be crowded
out, but that they proposed to stand their ground
and "fight this thing out to the bitter end." iHe
said they might bring on their immigrants, and
they would find the blacks ready for them.
It was thus incidentally shown on that, as it
often has been on other occasions, that the jealousy of the blacks is constant against the white
man, and that they do not favor any influential
participation by him in the government of the
State. And, as in the case of Charleston, they
are willing to perpetrate the greatest injustice to
prevent it.
55 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
On the question of immigration, the present
Governor is both for and against the measure.
-Ie knows the interest of the State requires it, and
he knows his negro supporters are opposed to it.
In his last annual message he thus declares himself in favor of immigration, but against immigrant foreigners. HIe admits the need of immigration in the abstract, but declares that the State
wants no immigrants except from the Northern
States. These he thinks would make excellent
agriculturists. In a word, he is very eager in his
invitations to a class of people whom hle knows
will not come, and turns his back upon and rebuffs those who would be glad to come.
This is all clear enough evidence as to the
policy of the blacks and their corrupt white allies
in regard to South Carolina. They desire to bind
her down in her present degradation. Looking
at the majorities they wield in the dense negro
counties, they believe they can do it.
But, whlien we rise to a contemplation of those
higher laws which govern the progress of humanity, we reach a belief that amounts to an assurance that Honesty and Intelligence will in the
end be more than a match for Ignorance and Corruption; and that even South Carolina, reduced,
beleaguered and prostrate as she is, will not always
remain a prey to the influences which now rule
the State. Looking at her situation and resources,
56 
THIE FUTURE OF THE STATE.
and the invincible qualities that mark the AngloSaxon race, we cannot admit that she is going to
be arrested in her progress, and least of all to recede and relapse into barbarism, because of her
present abnormal condition.   The State must
burst its bonds.  The energy of the American
race, the nature of things, the demands of modern
civilization, the pulsations of trade, commerce,
public intelligence, and mechanic industry, throbbing through the intercourse by railroad and telegraph, and cooperating with the vital and pervading resources of the State, all seem to warrant
the conclusion that a change must come. Although revolutions do not go backward, we feel
that a state of things at once unequal and unnatural cannot endure. The whites must have in
one way or another their relative weight in public affairs, not only in respect to the claim of niumbers, but of the still weightier claims of property,
intelligence, and enterprise. While the laws of
the universe remain, these claims must in the end
successfully assert themselves. Not even governments can prevent it. And it is about time
for the Federal Administration to take this reflection to heart.
57 
CHIAPTER VIII.
The Rule of the Negro in South Carolina. —What it is, what
it portends.-Education.
THE rule of South Carolina should not be dignified with the name of government.  It is the
installation of a huge system of brigandage. The
men who have had it in control, and who now have
it in control, are the picked villains of the comminunity. They are the highwaymen of the State.
They are professional legislative robbers. They
are mnen who have studied and practised the art
of legalized theft. They are in no sense different
from, or better than, the men who fill the prisons
and penitentiaries of the world. They are, in
fact, of precisely that class, only more daring
and audacious.  They pick your pockets by law.
They rob the poor and the rich alike, by law.
They confiscate your estate by law. They do
none of these things even under the tyrant's plea
of the public good or the public necessity.  They
do all simply to enrich themselves personally.
The sole, base object is, to gorge the individual
with public plunder. Having done it, they turn 
ARE THESE THINGS INEVITABLE?
around and buy immunity for their acts by sharing their gains with the ignorant, pauperized, besotted crowd who have chosen them to the stations they fill, and which enable them thus to
rob and plunder.
Are we to be told that these things are inevitable because they are the results of our theory
of government, and that that theory must be
sound?  Is not the true reasoning quite in the
other direction? If these are the legitimate results of it, then the theory is at fault, and its
application must somehow be changed or modified.  What the world is after is results-sound,
wholesome, just results. These every intelligent
and resolute community will have, sooner or later,
in one way or another.  They will not forever
endure tyrannies, hnd oppressions and outrages.
It is the corruptions and the abuses of authority
that stimulate revolutions, rupture kingdoms, and
overturn empires.  This is as true now and will
be a-s true in the future as it has been in the past.
Fraud, injustice, misrule in government, what,
ever their protean shapes, whether lofty or low,
whether noble or ignoble in their aspects, will
breed a temper that will seek to accomplish their
overthrow.  Especially must this be so in our
times.  Does anybody suppose that such a condition of things as exists to-day in South Carolina
is to last? Such a supposition is to ignore the his
.59 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
tory and the character of mankind. Suppose the
men, or a large portion of the white men, of South
Carolina who have gone through the War of the
Rebellion are cowed and demoralized by its results; how is it with the individuals of the rising
generation who are fast taking their places? Is
not the hot blood of the South in their veins?
They have the ardor of youth.  They have the
stimulus of young ambition; they have the pride
of ancestry; they have the inherited valor of successive generations.  Have they no part to play
in the future? We may rest assured that no depressing circumstances of the present are going
to destroy or repress the natural development
that comes of race and of blood. Opportunity
alone is wanting; and that, we know, is always
found by the bold and aspiring.
In pointing to these dangers, which the future
has in store, we take the same conservative part
that we did in warning the Northern Democracy
and the rabid slave-holder against the daring
attempt to force slavery into the Free Territories. We then pleaded for the rights of freemen
and the demand of justice. We do the same now.
We opposed oppression then, we oppose oppression now. The circumstances are different, the
elements of the case are different, but the fundamental principle underlying the action then and
the action now is identical. It is the true faun
60 
LESSONS FROM IIISTORY.
tion of conservatism in government to recognize
present and to foresee future danger and guard
against it. It was true conservatism to expose
the evils of slavery and aimn to prevent its spread.
It is true conservatism now to expose the frightful results of the rule of ignorance, barbarism,
and vice, and to visit with unsparing condemnation a condition of affairs as perilous and as threatening to the future peace and prosperity of the
country as any that ever preceded it in our history.
Those who suppose that any thing short of a
good government in the State of South Carolina,
and, we may add, of any other State similarly situated in the South, is going to long stand, or be
tolerated, may well take heed, if their judgments
are ever to find expression in action. The history
of Hungary is before us.  The history of Poland
is before us. The history of Ireland is before us.
Where there is actual injustice, or radical wrong
in the government, it breeds resistance.   That
wrong may be even in part sentimental. It is
none the less real for that. The present government of South Carolina is not only corrupt and
oppressive, it is insulting. It denies the exercise
of the rights of white communities, because they
are white. The city of Charleston is an example, as we have heretofore shown. The black
government of the State denies it the right to superintend its own voting, or to count its own votes.
61 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
There is always a calm after a rebellion is
quelled. There is always a time when "order
reigns in Warsaw." But, unless justice is established, a storm follows. The revolutionary spirit
is a catching disorder. It is even more-it is
hereditary.  In these later times wise rulers have
been tatught a lesson.   They have learned  to
remove just causes of complaint.  We  are just
having our first trials in this line reach the ear of
the Federal Government. They already come in
trutmpet-tones from at least two States in the
Union.  Hiave the men who are in temporary
charge of our national affairs the ability, the
skill, or the perception of the situation that is
requisite to deal with them?
These remarks are not intended to perpetuate
discontent or hostility.  They are plain, frank
words, addressed to the good sense and the intelligence of the reader.  They speak to the judgmnent only. If they have any force, it comes of
their truth and justice alone. They are but an
exposition and a warning. They have no object
beyond that of attracting public attention to existing scenes, circumstances, and events that are
alike full of interest and full of peril to the country.
The question is often asked if education is not
the remedy for the blackness of darkness that
prevails in South Carolina. Yes, indeed, if that
were possible.  Make it compulsory then.  But
62 
WHAT EDUCATION IS.
what is education?  Is it the glib recitation of
the alphabet, or the muLltiplication-table?  Is it
the knowledge of reading and writing? This is
all that compulsory education can give, il its
most successful forms.  But here is a race to be
educated in the very elements of manhood. They
have to be taught positively and negatively. The
education they require is the formation of a race
the opposite of the existing race. They have to
be taught not to lie, not to steal, not to be unchlaste.  To educate them properly is to revolutionize their whole moral nature.  The groundwork of that education which will make them fit
rulers of a republic will not even lhave been laid
when they shall be taught reading and writing.
It is the reading and writing negroes of the South
Carolina Legislature who lead in its most infamous
venalities and corruptions.  This sort of education
merely lends a cutting edge to their moral obtuseness.  Education, to be what it ought to be with
the existing race of negroes in the South, means
to educate them out of themselves, means to undo
the habits and practices and modes of thought
and want of thought engendered by centuries of
slavery. It means the moral enlightenment and
regeneration of a whole people debauched and
imbruted for ages. Such is the gigantic task demanded of an education suited to existing circumstances. 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
We do not mean to say that all this is necessary to entitle the colored man to the privileges of
citizenship, but only mean it as a reply to the glib
suggestion of compulsory education as a ready
remedy for the existing disorders and crimes that
disgrace republican government and menace its
future. Neither is it any answer to say that
other people are ignorant, and superstitious, and
degraded. When the ignorant and superstitious
and degraded subjects of other nationalities have
shown themselves capable of governing the better
classes of society, it will be time to plead their example and their qualifications for the functions of
rulers. But they are the classes who have never yet
in history exercised the functions of government.
And thus the fact that they exist from age to age,
and that their presence does not destroy governments, proves nothing.  They have lived as pupils in the State, and not as its rmasters, as they
now live in South Carolina. Let us not be misunderstood. We are not talking about denying
rights of citizenship. We are denouncing governments of ignorance and vice, and demanding
a remedy.
Again, there is no parallel to be drawn between
the exceptional venality of Northern Legislatures
and the corruptions of South Carolina government. They do not spring from the same causes.
The former can be promptly remedied by ex
64 
A MORAL MORASS.
posure and by an appeal to the intelligence and
virtue of the constituency; in the other case there
is no such tribunal to appeal to. It is a moral
morass in which there is neither standing nor
holding ground. 
CHAPTER IX.
The Character of the Negro, morally and intellectually.
SOUTHERN. thinking minds have always been
deeply exercised over the problem of the black
population, from Mr.  Jefferson down.   They
strive to master it. They try hard to elucidate
it. They have an unconquerable desire to find
holding-ground for their speculations. They look
backward, and around them, and forward to the
future, to try and discover a philosophy and a
theory which shall explain the various and curious facts brought to their knowledge, and guide
them out of the smoky labyrinth wherein they
grope. But that full solution they so much desire always eludes their grasp. Africa rises always to their view. There the negro has had
sway through unnumbered centuries.  There lie
is a barbarian still. Give him sway elsewhere,
will his condition be different? What ground isthere for the supposition?  When the white element exists in him, it modifies but does not improve him. 
BLACKS AND HALF-BLACKS.
It is thle umiform testimony of experience and
observation that the pure black is the best man.
The admixture of white blood does no good, but
the contrarv. The half-breed is more treacherous, more passionate, more vicious, more delicate
in constitution. But the black is a child of vice
and ignorance and superstition in South Carolina
as well as in Africa. What he might have been
capable of, under different conditions than those
in which he has ever existed, it is useless to inquire.  Races of men exhibit the same general
characteristics from age to age. The question
which concerns us is, not what might be, or what
in some remote future may be, but what now is.
The negro is suddenly thrust into conspicuous
prominence in our political system, and it is his
present condition, qualities, habits, propensities,
that we have to deal with, and we are now all
alike deeply interested with his former masters
in considering the problem of his character. lie
is certainly not the kind of man, and his race is
not the race, for whom our political institutions
were originally made; and it is already a serious
question whether he is the man, or his the race,
for which they are adapted. We have but barely
entered upon the experience which is to furnish
a solution of this question. It is one we need to
study and try to master.   The overshadowing
mass of black barbarism at the South hangs like
07 
THlE PROSTRATE STATE.
a portentous cloud upon the horizon. The country boldly confronted the question of slavery and
as boldly destroyed it.  It is gone, and gone
forever. No man wishes to restore it. Not even
in South Carolina is that man to be found.  The
best thinkers of the South to-day tell us they
bless God for the war. It was necessary to get
rid of slavery.   But for slavery, they believe,
the original slave States of the South would be
among the greatest and most flourishing of all our
commonwealths. It is the negro who has been the
innocent cause of their despoliation. It is the negro
that rests like an incubus upon them. Their vital forces pulsate under ribs of iron which will not
give them play. It is the man from Africa who today bestrides them like acolossus. Hie came in helplessness, he has risen in strength. Hie was the servant of South Carolina; he has become her master.
These are the appalling facts that make it
important and necessary that the negro should be
studied and understood by the whole country. It
is not a question for South Carolina merely; it is
a question for the nation. For it is a question
of the predominance and antagonism of races.
If it be true that this is not a white man's government, is it true of any State that it shall be a
black man's government'? It is a question for
statesmanship to answer whether it can be expected that the white man will long stand pas
68 
A PERPLEXING QUESTION.
sively by and see all the power of legislation
wielded by the inferior race. And more: whether
hle can be expected to witness patiently the still
more exasperating spectacle of the ignorance and
venality of the blacks, bearing sway over the intelligence, probity, and honest manhood of the
State. There is a moral element in every State.
There is its conscience, its sense of right, its hatred of wrong.  These are its genuine and unconquerable revolutionary forces. Once roused, and
we have a State on fire, and a fire which politics
and politicians are always powerless to quench.
It is the fanaticism of justice, which the stars in
their courses sustain, and against which no attribute of the Almighty takes part.
We only disposed of one phase of the negro
question in abolishing slavery.  The great per- plexity of establishing just relations between the
races in the negro States is yet to be encountered.
And it comes upon the country under a cloud of
embarrassments. It has to be settled under the
growing urgency and doubtful solution of the question whether the great mass of the black population at the South is not now mentally and morally
unfit for self-government, and whether the progress of events will not force a modification of the
original reconstruction acts-not based upon race
or color or previous condition, but upon other
considerations yet to be evolved and elucidated.
.69 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
Fancy the moral condition of a State in
which a large majority of all its voting citizens
are habitually guilty of thieving and of conctlbinage. Yet such is the condition of South Carolina. Are we to be told that the civilization of
the nineteenth century has nothing better to
propose than this for the government of one of
the oldest and proudest States of the American
Union?
As it is morally, so it is intellectually. These
same rulers of a great State, speaking of them as
a whole, neither read nor write. They are as
ignorant and as irresponsible in the exercise of
their political functions as would be the Bedouin
Arab of the desert, or the roving Conomanches of
the plains, if called upon to choose the rulers of
New York or Massachusetts. Is this the self-government for which a war of seven years was waged,
in which the best blood of a nation was shed, and
to secure the results of which a written Constitution was painfully elaborated by its wisest and
most conscientious men, in order that justice and
libertyv might forever be maintained in the States
of the model American Republic? - Tell us what
government of any civilized state of the Old
World, if imported into South Carolina, would be
as oppressive upon, and as unfitted for, the 300,000 white people of that State, as that which
now curses it under the name of republican!
70 
CHAPTER X.
The South as it is, and not as it seems.-The Demands of Justice
anid Statesmanship.
IT was not the whole Southern people that
were fools or criminals, in the matter of secession,
by any means. It was really but a handful of
leaders, not one of whori was of sound mind,
that precipitated the insane attempt to take the
slave-holding States out of the Union.  But for
half a dozen men, who never made any figure in
the real work of the rebellion afterward, there
would have been no secession and no war. It
was Toombs, and Slidell, and Rhett, and Mason,
and Jeff Davis, who were the malignant spirits
of the contest, and without whom the war would
not have been made.  The men who commanded
the Southern armies, like Lee and the Johnstons,
and Stonewall Jackson, and Longstreet; and the
more eminent of the civilians who carried on the
rebel government, as R. M. T. HIunter, Alexander HI. Stephens, and Benjamin, would never have
moved hand or foot to initiate secession.  They,
and even such men as Governor Wise, were hurried
i 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
along by a popular current, set in motion by the
radicals of the slave-holding party, which they
found themselves powerless to resist. Wise was
one of the most fiery of the slave-holders, but even
he was against secession. There was thus no
unanimity even among the dominant party of the
South, who had acquired ascendency from their
loud protestation of their peculiar devotion to the
interests of the South, and signalized it repeatedly in Congress by their furious denunciations
of everybody who would not worship the offensive
god of their own idolatry.  Mueh of what they
said and did was purely dramatic and designed to
advance personal and political ends. They played
the part of the demagogue with the objects of the
demagogue, and with no serious intention of rupturingff the Union, or bringing on a bloody war.
We say, without fear of contradiction, that, during
the ten years that preceded the breaking out of
the rebellion, not oie in ten of the members from
the slave States favored disunion in any event.
The inflammatory speeches in behalf of slavery,
and against those who opposed its spread, were
generally made by those engaged in a race for
popular favor at home. They were for bunkurn.
And some of the most distinguished of the surviving actors in those efforts have to-day no hesitation in avowing it. The only excuse for their
criminiality is to be found in their ignorance of
72 
THE MODERATE MEN
the mischief they were committing.  They helped
to fill the magazine with materials, which a few
others, more bold and more reckless, exploded.
They helped to " fire the Southern heart," and to
popularize the sentiment that to oppose the exteiision of slavery into territory where it did not exist,
was in some way an aggression upon Southern
rights, which ought to be resisted.  This sentiment was spread by these dramatic and demagogical efforts, and enabled the handful of secession leaders to excite the sudden ebullition of
popular fervor, which finally carried the secession
conventions without any majority behind them.
Outside the ranks of the slave-hiolders themselves, whose own divisions were such as we have
depicted, there was a vast body of moderate, conservative men, who had no part or lot in agitating
the slavery question. They were men who, finding slavery as a birthright and an inheritance,
aimed to make the best of theis situation.  They
deprecated agitation, and desired to remove it
from the field of political discussion. They held
to no extremes of opinion either in regard to its
spread or its abolition. They were beset by no
mad conceits of a slave empire, and their moral
sense had not been so corrupted that they desired
its unending perpetuation.  They viewed slavery
as an evil, but an evil to be endured, till a way,
yet unseen by them, was opened for its extinction.
4
73 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
They saw it was a question of an inflammable
character, easily made the stepping-stone of ambition, and requiring constant efforts to allay strife
and contention in regard to it. These they patriotically and devotedly made, opposing rampant
abolitionism on the one hand, and slave-mongering
and slave-spreading on tho other. A vast proportion of substantial citizens of the South were of
this way of thinking always. It was this class
who kept many of the best men of the South in
Congress as their representatives, for long years,
and who went under at last, as the banks of a river
go under during a destructive rise of its waters.
That body of men ill the South were submerged
by the rebellion, but they were not converted
and not wholly destroyed. They and their descendants exist to-day, a large, growing, powertifl, upright phalanx of worthy citizens. They
are the men, and the descendants of men, who
sent such representatives to Congress as John
Bell, of Tennessee, and Berrien, of Georgia, and
Governor Aiken, Edward Stanley, and Willie P.
Mangum, of the Carolinas, and a host of others
of kindred virtues and talents, whose wisdom and
moderation were the pride of the nation.
There is another view of the case that should
not be overlooked.  Notwithstanding the vigor
with which the rebellion was sustained by the
Confederate troops in the field, there is abundant
74 
CONFEDERATE DESPOTISM.
testimony to show that, after the first sudden volintary rush to arms which marked the opening
of the contest, the heart of the people was never
in the war.  The idea had been sedulously inculcated that it was to be a mere holiday affair.
Ex-Senator Chesnut, of South Carolina, proclaimed in the secession convention of that State,
that he would drink all the blood that would be
shed in consequaence of secession. But, when it
was found that earnest war was to be the result,
the mass of the people were wholly averse to rerlaining in the army.  As fast as their first short
terms expired they hastened to return to their
homes, and they never left them except as they
were dragged out by the strong arm of military
power. It was only by exercising despotic authority, and by being utterly callous and conscienceless in its exercise, that the Confederate
authorities recruited the rebel armies.',-'-And, notwithstanding all the exertion made, the losses by
desertion were so great at times as to threaten the
absolute dissolution of the army.  In one of the
incautious speeches in which President Davis indulg,ed himself in a tour through South Carolina
during the war, he substantially admitted this.
The testimony now is uniform in the Southl) that,
as the war progressed, the troops made use of
every excuse and opportunity to flee from the
ranks and go to their starving households.  A
75 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
little handful of self-styled chivalry clung to the
Confederate staindard, urged thereto by the stimulants of personal pride and female pique, which
urged them on, but these sentiments and influences had no weight with the mass.
It is only on this theory that we can account
for the sudden and, at the time, almost inexplicable collapse of the Southern armies after Lee was
driven from Richmond.  They disappeared like
the mist under the morning sun, while friends and
allies both in this country and Europe were confidently predicting a fresh and strenuous guerrilla
resistance in detail.
Little did those allies know of the sufferings
the rank and file had endured in fighting battles
in which they had no interest, or how they had
slkulked, deserted, hid, and been hunted by bloodh'nds, and torn from their suffering families
under the most heartless and cruel circumstances.
Thus oppressed, they only too willingly threw
away their arms and returned to the welcome
avocations of peace.  They were men without a
grievance or a complaint. They had never been
oppressed, and they knew it. They had never
been denied a personal nor a political right enjoyed by the most favored citizen of the reptblic. Why should they voluntarily continue a
war against such a Government   The answer
was found in their subsequent action. They
76 
THE REAL SOUTH.
never did. They never raised a hand to prolong
the contest a day. This striking fact is the testimnony of the rank and file in regard to the character of the wrongs the Confederate Government
were professedly attempting to right.
We think there is full justification for the
statement that a vast majority of the Southern
people were entrapped by a handful of ambitious
leaders, destitute of the first elements of sound
Statesmanship, into a war for which there was no
provocation, and which they would never have
deliberately confronted. But, war once begun,
they were in a vise.  A despotic military govcrnment was thenceforth their master.  To that
is to be imputed all that followed.
Considerations like these may lead us to inqtuire whether the South of our imagination, as
seen through the smoke and the blood and the
fire of civil war, is not something very different
from the real South that was dragged into secession, or the actual South of to-day.
The war, the events of the war, the men of the
war, hang like a thick, impenetrable curtain before the eyes of the present generation of NTorthemrn people, hiding from view a past history, and
existing facts, and a present situation. all of which
are profoundly essential to a proper understanding of the problem with which the statesmanship
of the country has now to deal. There is in the
77
i 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
South to-day an  enormouts  mass of inherited
worth, and virtue, and capacity, and wisdom,
and every solid element of citizenship, that has
an indefeasible right to demand recognition, and
justice, and fraternal consideration. Tile commonest sentiments of humanity require it. The
ties of a common lineage and a common government demand it. It is no more than we extend
to the most worthless specimens of humanity of
foreign birth that are annually landing upon our
shores. Every generous impulse prompts it. The
dictates of a wise statesmanship imperiously exact it. Nothing stands inl the way of such recognition, but a blind, selfish, partisan hostility, that
is as undying in its revenges as it is merciless in
its judgments.
It is necessary to awake to the necessity of
exterminating this hateful obstacle. It is time
prejudice and enmity were put aside. In an eager
desire to secure the natural rights of one set of
people, we have quite overlooked the claims of
another. In carelessness of the sufferings of the
guilty, the heavy hland of injustice has been laid
upon the innocent.                 1
78 
CHAPTER XI.
United States Troops in Carolina.-Destruction of the South Caro lina University.-A Bastard Government.-Reform demanded.
AMONG the significant peculiarities to be observed in Columbia is the presence of United
States troops. They occupy barracks on the outskirts of the town, in a pleasant quarter, where
they drill daily, where the flag always floats, and
where military music is heard at sunset. Among
the airs often played is that which refers to the
late John Brown, of Ossawattomie.  The gentle
reminder contained in that piece of music seems
to be particularly superfluous during the sessions
of the present South Carolina Legislature.  For
if any thing would demonstrate the fact that the
soul of that immortal person is marching on, it
would be the living presence of that body of legislators.  But the music seems to create no ripple
of discontent. It is a favorite pastime of the
"Gig Society" of Columbia to drive every evening to the parade-grounds and  listen to such
strains as the band chooses to discourse. Out of
the multitude no one runs away at the sound of 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
John Brown's name.  The military have no terrors for this community, and their presence is
welcomed rather than deprecated. They are not
regarded in the li,ght of an offensive symbol of
authority; the money they spend and the music
they make are considered a good deal more than
an offset for any sentimental objections that it
]ight be fancied their presence would excite.
Near by the parade-grounds are the college
buildings of the University of South Carolina.
Before the war their walls sheltered some two
hundred students.  Their young blood was fired
by the first tap of the drum, and they all rushed
to the field.  They have not come back.  What
was to be a pastime proved a stern reality. The
buildings look worn and desolate, and only a handful of scholars and a few poorly-paid professors
remain. In execution of the steady purpose of
putting the blacks on an equality with the whites,
a measure was passed at this session to throw
open the library to the colored students of the
Normal School, and to take one of the college
buildings for its uses. And in pursuance of the
same purpose a majority of the trustees of the college were recently chosen by the same Legislature from the ranks of the blacks. In this case
it was color rather than qualification for the post
that was sought. This destroys the usefulness of
the college so far as the white youth are con
80 
A STEP TOWARD AFRICANIZATION.
cerned, as the young aristocratic blood of the
State will decline the proposed amalgamiation.
The mrovement will eventuate in the substantial
destruction of the iniversity, as the black population will afford an inadequate supply of students. It is a damaging blow to the interests of
education in the State, and a significant step in
the process of Africanization. But, even if the
college could be allowed to remain in'the hands
of the whites, such is their stripped condition that
it would be difficult to maintain its former prosperity.  Still, it would have afforded to the youth
of thile State a sort of domestic intellectual holdingground, of great service during the present transition stage.  Its capture.by the blacks is a useless humiliation to the whites, since its advantages will now be lost to both races.  It does great
evil and it does no good.  it is an attack upon the
prejudices of the whites from no other motive than
desire of domination.  PRather than relinquish the
opportunity to control the college, the blacks are
willing to destroy it.  The class of whites that
support institutions of learning naturally decline
enforced intellectual association with the new
miasters of South Carolina, and we judge will not
be accounted particularly fastidious for this peculiarity.
In whatever direction we turn our eves, we
find such details of the operation of this anoma
81 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
lous government confronting us that we are provoked to speculations and comparisons impossible to repress. We know that changes of government often shove one set of men from their stools
in order that their seats may be occupied by rivals. Thus the Hulguenots, after Henry IV. of
France; thus the Stuarts of England; thus  thel
elder and the later Bourbons of St.-Germain,
were overthrown. The philosophical student of
history sympathizes comparatively little with tlhe
lamentations over such and like mutations. The
successful and the vanquished stand upon the
same general plane of equality. At the worst, it
is but hereditary rank giving way to plebeian
energy and intellect. It is no worse than the
genuine force of Nature in any instance, that
conquers and assumes control.  But it does this
by virtue of its own intrinsic power. It does it
through the God-given prerogative of capacity
and strength of character. Above all, it does it
of its own motion, and by dint of its own exertionI. And when the result is accomplished, civilization has received no backward set. In all
modern history there has been no substitution of
ignorance for knowledge, of barbarism for cultivation, of stolidity for intelligence, of incapacity
for skill, of vice and corruption for probity and
virtue, in the revolutions and changes that have
taken place.  The transitions, however trying to
82 
A CASE WITHOUT A PARALLEL.
individuals and dynasties, have been on the same
general plane of equality to the eye of history,
have been in the general interest of civilization,
and they do not startle us by offensive or shocking peculiarities or degradations. But it is altogether otherwise in the case of South Carolina.
Here is one to which all modern history does not
furnish a parallel.   The  changes here experienced have been accomplished by outside forces.
The result has not been produced by a wrestle
between two powers, in which the stronger has
thrown and taken the place of the weaker. The
strong has put the weak under foot, but has withdrawn itself after placing upon the neck of its
prostrate foe the yoke of an ignoble and an incompetent crowd. They reign and rule by virtue of no merit, no intelligence, no prowess, no
capacity of their own, but by means of an alien
and borrowed authority only. Obedience is enforced by a power foreign to the instrument that'
inflicts the humiliation. It is not the rule of intrilnsc strength; it is the compulsive power of
the Federal authority at Washington. ]But for
that, the forces of civilization' would readjust
themselves and overturn the present artificial
arrangement.
The State really bears a foreign yoke; not
one imposed by its own people, or by an authority which has -arisen of itself among themselves.
83 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
And this is the anomaly of the situation.  It is
a so-called democracy sustained by external fiorce.
In other words, it is a government that the intelligent public opinion of the State would overthrow if left to itself. It may be called self-government, or republican or democratic government,
but in no just sense is it either. It is a government which in the very nature of things could
never rise to control, of itself, in any community.
It is not an outgrowth of power and authority in
the reogular order.  It is a hybrid born of unnatural connections, offensive alike to God and man;
and, wherever the retributive responsibility of it
fairly belongs, it is clear that it does not belong
to the generation now rising upon the stage of
action in the South, and who alone will be in the
near future the sole victims of its oppressions.
And this is the class whose just rights must be
considered, whose hardships must be mitigated
and removed by the power which holds the actual
control of the situation, or another and yet another political and social convulsion will inevitably ensue, till disorder and revolution become
chronic in our affairs. Not till absolute justice
is established can we look for peace and tranquillity in our political system anywhere.
84 
CHAPTER XII.
The Redemption of the State possible.-What the National Gov.
crement might do.-The State deprived of External Aid.
THEn Federal Government could do much, if it
would take the necessary pains, toward correcting
some of the worst practices of this corrupt travesty
of a government. It did something in the appointment of Governor Orr as minister to Russia.
It was at least an expression of sympathy with
those who made an effort at reform at the last
election.  But it accomplished nothing of real
value. In fact, by sending a leading supporter
of the Administration, who was an opponent of
corruption, 5,000 miles out of the country, it
took away an influence which might, on occasion,
deter the rogues from some of their more nefariolus acts.
The only authority to vwhllich these miscreants
pay the least deference is the Federal Governinent; for its power and its countenance are requisite to the success of many of their own operations.  It makes large appropriations for new
public edifices in the State, as is attested by those 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
which are now going uip in Charleston and Columbia. It appoints to office the large body of revenue officers, both internal and external, the
numerous postmasters, the Federal judges, attorneys, and special agents, and it keeps bodies of
Federal troops in the State, which are everywhere
welcome for the money they disburse. Through
these and kindred influences, the Federal Goverilment holds vast sway over the State. That
for some reason it has not exercised its influence
to any appreciable extent in the interest of good
government, is evident.   It might  do  much
toward repressing many corrupt practices and
raising the moral tone of the State government.
It has not done this. And yet it would seem to
be its interest to do it. Why should the Republican party of the country, composed so largely as
it is of its best and most conscientious citizens, be
compelled to endure the foul stain inflicted by the
robberies and outrages of caitiffs, who deserve the
State-prison? Some of the leaders of affairs are
men who have merely adopted Republicanism as a
cloak for their villainies. South Carolina to-day rejoices in a Republican Representative in Congress
who once made a formal proposition in the' State
Legislature to reduce all the free blacks to slavery,
and it has a republican Governor who tore down
the American flag from Fort Sumter, and, treading it under foot, hoisted the Confederate ensign
86 
WRETCHED DEMAGOGUES.
in its place. Dancing at negro balls and issuing
"pay certificates" as Speaker is said to have been
the means whereby he has condoned his offenses.
One turns with inexpressible loathing and disgust
from such wretched demagogues, They cover
Republicanism with reproach, and, what is worse,
they depress and extinguish the hopes of philanthropic men who wish to see the capacity and
better qualities of the black man fairly tested in
the bold experiment of his sudden emancipation
and enfranchisement.
It is of no service to the colored man or his
cause to disguise the exact facts of the situation,
or to paint things otherwise than as they are. If
what is now failure could have been made even a
partial success through faithful effort and honest
endeavor, what denunciation'is too severe and
what punishment too great for those who have
disgraced a cause, and imperiled if not sacrificed
it by their unscrupulous greed?  These dusky
children of the Legislature greet with a loving
embrace the reports of congressional corruption,
of the practices of the various criminals whose
hidden deeds have been brought to light by the
recent investigations. The bribed and thricebought negroes roll these reports as sweet morsels
under their tongues. It is one of the worst features of these great corruptions at the centre that
they strengthen, increase, and keep in counte
87 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
nance those of the outsklirts.  Their reflective action is even more misehievons than their direct
consequences.  The crimes of high places are used
to excuse and justify those of remoter regions.
Pollution at the centre becomes the source of a
thousand infectious streams flowing in every
direction toward the circumference.  It discourages the criticism and cripples the influence of
the honest indignation of the country, when it
can no longer lean upon a solid body of ]hlonesty
and probity amnong the chosen few who publicly
represent the nation. One known public dishlonesty in Washington is the parent of a lhundred in South Carolina.  The external aids to
this State to enable her to extricate herself from
the Slough of Despond in which she is at present
stalled, it is thus readily seen, are much weakened
by the condition of things outside.  The Federal
Government may plead it has its hands full nearer
home. Nevertheless, as we began by saying, it
ought to do, and it might do, a great deal for the
State, if it would. If it would drive partisan
politics into the sea, and undertake to administer
Federal affairs here strictly on the basis of honesty
and integrity, it mighlt at least begin a breakwater to the general torrent of corruption that
pervades the State.
But the whites must rely mainly upon themselves, and mainly upon action quite outside and
88 
CLAIMS OF ANGLO-SAXON BLOOD.
independent of politics, to redeem the State, if it
is to be redeemed. - This is the real serious work
they should set about. The old historic and really
important city of Charleston, with its fifty thousand inhabitanlts and thirty millions of taxable
values, is not to be lightly surrendered, however
threatened. It is the same with the various other
towns of less consequence, but still of importance,
tlirouh,lout the State.  Then the extraordinary
magnitude of its agricultural and other resources,
always great, and capable of still further developiment, is a living and standing protest against a
pusillanimous yielding to adverse circuLinstances.
It would be a violent presumption against the
manliness, the courage, and the energy of South
Carolina white men, to allow the State to remain
in the permanent keeping of her present rulers.
It would be a testimony against the claims of
Anglo-Saxon blood, and it would be an emphatic
testimony to the decline of public virtue that
would be worse than all. These considerations
alone should be sufficient to inspire every white
man in South Carolina with a resolution to achieve
a reform that will bring the State back to its ancient respectability.  The feeling that most oppresses the whites, arises from the great apparent
majority of colored voters as shown in the elections.  This majority is reckoned to be about
30,000.  But this arises from the fact that all the
89 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
blacks vote, while the whites do not. There is
no such majority as appears on the record, as the
relative black and white population by the census
clearly shows. The blacks are 400,000, the whites
are over 300,000.  The actual majority, then, cannot be over 20,000.
But a comparison of the population of 1860
with that of 1870 shows some encouraging features. The black population of the State during
that decade, though they did not enter the army,
increased but by the small number of 3,500;
while the whites, who were all in arms during
the war, and who lost 12,000 fighting men, besides
the loss of increase thereby entailed, managed to
hold their own within the trifle of about 1,600.
On the basis of the general law of population the
expectation is encouraging. But the period might
be greatly shortened by powerful and concentrated effort to the same end. The fact of the
State being so completely in possession of the
blacks, it is supposed, will and does attract the
colored people of other States.  But the black
population is everywhere poor and immobile, and
though there is a movement toward the towns, it
does not appear in the agricultural districts. In
these there are blacks enough.  The class there
wanted is of immigrants who have a little money,
and who buy land, and farm on their own account.
And such do come, and will be more and more
90 
A QUESTION OF TIME.
encouraged to come. It is their thrift and their
energy and their money that are going to play an
important part in overcoming the predominance
of the black population. Where the white man
can live and prosper, and enjoy good health, as
he can all over the upper country or bluff-lands
of Soutlh Carolina, he is bound to supplant the
weaker and poorer race. So that the restoration
of the predominance of the white population in
the State seems to be only a question of time,
which can be much abbreviated by suitable effort.
91 
CHIAPTER XIII.
Immigration its Greatest Need.-A Naked and Desolate State.   Prejudices against White Immigrants still existing.-Greater
Political Tolerance demanded.
THE experience of South Carolina during and
since the war is one of the most tragic episodes
in history. When before did mankind behold
the spectacle of a rich, high-spirited, cultivated,
self-governed people suddenly cast down, bereft
of their possessions and put under the feet of the
slaves they had held ill bondage for centuries?
It was a severe blow to the people of South
Carolina to have their slaves emancipated without compensation.  It was as great a shock as
society is often called to endure, to have the masters and their families, brought up in luxury and
idleness, suddenly thrown back upon themselves,
and compelled in suffering and destitution to get
on as they best might, without aptitude and
without experience.
They lost every thing they possessed in the
shape of property, except the soil of the State
and the buildings thereon spared from the deso
I 
~
THE RUIN OF THE STATE.
lation of war.   The banks were ruined.   The
railroads were destroyed. Their few manufactories were desolated.  Their vessels had been swept
from the seas and the rivers.  The live-stock was
consunmed.    Notes, bonds,  mortgages,  all the
money in circulation, debts, became alike worthless. The community were without clothes and
without food.  Every thing had gone into the
rapacious maw of the Confederate Government;
vast estates had crumbled like paper in a fire.
While the shape was not wholly destroyed, the
substance had turned to ashes. Never was there
greater nakedness and desolation in a civilized
community.  Added to all this was the loss of
12,000 of the best blood of the State out of a voting population of 60,000-the pride of families and
the hope of the State. They had gone to their
graves, hurried thither by the hot blast of war.
Individual examples of suffering among the oldest and wealthiest families of the State could be
given to any extent-each  a tragedy.   But this
is not all.  The white citizen, dazed with a sudden appreciation of his stripped and bereft condition, when the end came, turned only to behold the extraordinary transformation of his
bondmen.  The slave had suddenly acquired his
freedom, and with that the right to vote and
hold office.   The enfranchised negroes were a
majority in three-quarters of the counties in the
93 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
State. They all at once gathered at the polls,
chose themselves to office, and under slight guidance became its rulers andcl governors. Anma7d
at the sudden change, stunned by this blow at
their pride and power, the whites looked around
to see if all was a hideous dream.  They found
the movement backed by United States bayonets,
and then they knew it was a ghastly reality.
-The civilized and educated white race was under
foot, prostrate and powerless, and the black barbarian reigned in its stead. tIe reigns to-day in
the full plenitude of an overwhelming majority,
and at every point with unabridged authority.
There is not a white minority at the State-House
large enough to check legislation in any of its
stages, or modify it in any of its phases.  The
handful of white representatives in the Legislature sit mute spectators of its proceedings, and
seem only to exist to witness the tight grip and
relentless hold the emancipated slaves keep upon
the throats of their old masters. It is the great
political novelty of the age, the most conspicuous
fact of the slave-holders' rebellion; a tragedy and
a fate more strange than any fiction.
The great and all-imnportant question for
South Carolina to canvass and decide is this:
What can its substantial, landholding, honest
white citizens do, in the existing emergency, to
put an end to the present infamnous rule of the
94 
FOREIGN IMMIGRATION.
State? Our answer would be: Let themr first fix
their eyes upon the great continuous stream of
foreign immigration which lands 300,000 people,
seeking new homes, annually on our shores-a
body self-impelled, and almost wholly self-directed, as yet, but which is capable of being turned,
deflected, and changed to a most considerable degree, by efficient measures taken toward that end.
No experiment has ever been made to see what
strong concerted action might accomplish in this
direction.  But with such an enormous mass of
malleable material to work'upon, it is fair to suppose that wise and concerted efforts would be
crowned with success. This is the first point to
be considered. The second step is to disabuse
the South Carolina mind of some erroneous ideas
entertained by it in regard to white imnmigrants.
The State having suffered so much from carpetbaggers, it is no wonder the native population
look upon strangers with suspicion.  But the
white immigrant of the future is to recompense
her for the carpet-baggers' frauds and spoliations.
There is no fear that hle will not be on the side
of justice and economy, and good government;
for it is his interest to be so, as muich as it is for
the resident white citizen.  Only let the white
immigrants from all quarters be encouraged to
come. Let no man bother himself about the
immigrants' opinions.  It has been too much the
95 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
habit of the old South Carolinian to feel that the
State, in all its franchises, potentialities, and future possibilities, belongs to him and to him
alone, and that it is for him to exercise a sort of
surveillance over the character and opinions of
those who would come and share his opportunities. It used to be said in the old days of sla.
very, and there is a feeble echo of the sentiment
still left, that South Carolinians will welcome all
who come to the State, provided they come to
promote its industrial prosperity, and leave politics alone. But we all see that this is all out of
place now. South Carolina must grow in the
future, if she is to be redeemed and keep pace
with her sister States, as those States grow, by
the introduction of numnbers, and of wealth and
enterprise from without, and they must come
enjoying the same absolute freedom ifrom surveillance and criticism that is enjoyed everywhere else.  In these days of mental activity,
the emigrant carries with him, among his other
possessions, a good stock of opinions, and it is
absurd to ask him to lay them down at the frontier of any State which he proposes to make
his future residence. In this respect South Carolina cannot be permitted to enjoy an exemption
granted to no other civilized comlnuniity on this
continent, and it is preposterous to advance a
suggestion of such a character.  If South Caro
96 
FREEDOM OF SPEECH.
lina is to grow and flourish as other States grow
and flourish, she must obey the law of their
growth and cheerfully accept its conditions. The
fundamental one of all is entire individual independence, and entire individual irresponsibility
to others, and to society, as to his conduct and
opinions, so long as he is guiltless of all infractions of the law.
It has long been the doctrine of the old slave
States that a maln should be held personally responsible for the expression of adverse opinions
on certain social and political questions. This intolerance of opinion had its roots in the practice
of slavery. It survives still in a modified degree,
although emancipation has destroyed all apology
for it. Any assertion of this spirit in the present
changed condition of things is absurd. Every
man, in our day, in South Carolina and everywhere else, must be permitted the exercise of his
right to the untrammeled expression of his opinion, in decorous terms, on any subject whatever,
without rendering himself obnoxious to anybody,
or subjecting himself to the rebuke of anybody.
This is the one new thing which South Carolina
people of high and low degree must be prompt
to learn. It is the very first condition of her regeneration and extrication.  Nothing short of
unreserved submission to this law of all our growing communities will secure the end and objects
5
97 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
of her salvation.  Immigrants here must be like
immigrants everywhere, free, unconstrained, independent. Every invitation to them to come
must be conceived in this spirit, and expressed in
these ternms.  They must not be expected to bend
to the old ways of an old society, but to proceed
by such methods and walk in such paths as shall
seem best in their own eyes, however strange and
new to all others. There is no alternative for
her white population and property-holders but
heartily to second these views, or continue to
hold their present humiliating position, which
means further declension and final ruin to them
and their posterity. There is no longer any law
of entail for opinions in this country. The war
ended that. And it behooves South Carolina to
recognize it quickly. She is at the meeting of
the waters. She has a great opportunity to retrieve her fortunes. But the chance is equally
good to sacrifice them. Those whose duty and
business it is to act in this great emergency, may
by their inaction, their inertia, let the State slide
into ruin, and thus make its future a standing
blot on our existing civilization.   But, on the
other hand, they may avert this result, and give
to it a future which shall eclipse all its former
glories.
98 
CHAPTER XIV.
Inducements to Immigrants.-Cheap Lands and a Salubrious Cli.
mate.-The Profitableness of Cotton Culture.-An Agricultu   ral Paradise.-The History of Previous Migrations.
SOUTITH CAROLINA affords great enticements to
the agricultural immigrant. Portions of half a
dozen of the lower counties toward the seaboard
are unhealthy. But two-thirds, or more, of the
State is otherwise. This two-thirds embraces a
large portion of the cotton-lanlds, and all the
grain-growing and grazing regions.  Columbia is
very near the geographical centre of the State.
Here, the statistics show that the greatest mortality is between November and April, and that
the summer heats thus engender no maladies.
This rule holds good in all the State north and
west of Columbia, and, on the south and east,
half-way down to the coast.  Several of the towns
directly on the seaboard are equally healthy.
Charleston claims a smaller mortality than any
city of the North, with the single exception of
Portland, iii Maine.
In addition to this general salubrity, the State
I..
:::       V.:.     6' 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
enjoys the inestitnable advantage, for an agricultural country, of having no winter.  Plowing
may be, and is, carried on in every month of the
year. The average mean temperature of Columbia for the month of February, 18T3, at 8 A.z:.,
was over 48~, and at 3 P. M,. it was a fraction over
60~. I suppose the month of April would not make
as good a showing as this in New England or the
Northwest. But the number of trees and plants
that grow out-of-doors in Columbia, and give such
an exceptional air of verdure to the winter landscape, affords proof enough of the mild character
of the climate. Hiere grow and flourish in the
open air, the Camellia Japo'ic, the arttiuls, the Cape jasmine, the English and Spanish
laurel, the Chinese hawthorn, so called, the holly, the Chinese and Australian pines, the liveoaks, the tree-box, the mock-orange, and the
magnificent magnolia, besides various others.
None of the plants or trees I hlave enumerated
shed their leaves during the winter, and there
need be no finer shade-trees than  the mockorange and the massive and graceful live-oak.
Columbia is the heart of a great cotton-region.
This crop is cultivated to the exclusion of others
that can be raised with equal facility, though
not with equal profit. There is nothing like
cotton for profit  Land that will not bring ten
bushels of corn to the acre will produce half a
-:..
100 
COTTON AND GRASS.
bale of cotton, worth forty to fifty dollars.  Nobody can be long in a cotton-growing country
without sharing in the fascinations of its culture,
and, as an agriculturist, abjuring all climates
where it will not grow. There is no labor in
raising it that is not easy and enticing, and it
exhausts the land no more than the thistle-down,
if you but return the seed to the ground. Corn
can be produced as well here as in Pennsylvania.
It has been worth all winter in Columbia over one
dollar a bushel; and hay, which is more difficult to
raise, but which an experienced English gardener
here says he can raise, and has raised, at the rate
of two tons to the acre, simply by heavy topdressing, is steadily worth forty-five to fifty dollars a ton in the same market.  But it ought to
be said that, except on river-bottoms, grass does
not naturally flourish in a climate where cotton
grows.  The summer heats parch and wither it.
There is plenty of old plantation-land in the
market at extremely  low  prices.  Lands  that
were held before the war at twenty-five  and
thirty dollars an acre, and cheap enougl at that,
can now be had at two, three, four, five, and
ten dollars an  acre.  These lands are all in
working order, and need only good farming to
make tlhemI more profitable than they ever were.
The old planters were nearly all ruined or greatly
emblarrassed by the war, and those who survive
1-01 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
cannot readily adapt themselves to the changes
that emancipation has brought.  But labor is
plenty, and there seems to be no serious obstacle
to a revival of the agricultutre of the State on the
new basis. The transition is naturally attended
by difficulties, but none great enough to conquer
ordinary enterprise.   With  every facility for
making such sure and profitable crops as corn
and cotton, the temptation to an agriculturist
would appear to be very much greater than is
offered on the Western prairie-lands. Let any
man take a price-current of Western agricultural
products at the point where they are raised, and
he will be amazed at the comparatively unremunerating figures they show, contrasted with those
in South Carolina: iHay six dollars a ton, corn
twenty-five cents a bushel, pork four dollars a
hundred pounds, and other things in proportion.
Let him compare these prices with those of the
products of a South Carolina upland plantation,
where every thing is as cheerful and healthy as onl
the best rolling prairies, to say the least; and
where there is no winter of sufficient rigor to
necessitate either extra clothing or extra fuel,
and no weather to impede agricultural occupation at all times of the year.  The" middling" or
standard grade of South Carolina cotton is at
present worth at any railroad-station in the State
about eighteen cents a pound. An acre of land
102 
A SMALL FARMER.
will produce from three hundred to five hundred
pounds, according to the character of the cultivation, and the crop is as sure and the price
as steady, in the long-run, as that of any crop
that grows; while no other is so imperishable, or
so easily handled, or requires so little room or
attention. A crop worth a thousand dollars may
be put in a cow-stall.  Once gathered and put into
bale, it is subjected to no contingencies of weather,
or season, or insects. It neither deteriorates nor
perishes by waiting, and the holder may thus
take his own time to market it. The standing
complaint in every cotton-growing country is
that farmers will grow nothing else.  But this
is no wonder.  Still, every good farmer will guard
himself on this point.
A small farmer on the outskirts of Columbia
lately bought eighty acres of land. Last year he put
forty acres in cotton. He raised forty bales of five
hundred pounds each on these forty acres.  Ile had
the advantage of a good supply of stable-manure
from the town, and of labor from the same source.
The total cost of production was nine cents a pound.
I-e sold his crop on the spot for eighteen or nineteen cents a pound, making a clear profit of nearly
fifty dollars a bale. The exceptional advantages
which enabled him to do this were an unlimited
supply of cotton-hands from the town, who worked
for fifty cents a day and "found" themselves, and
io 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
the control of the manure-product from a liverystable. But his was not a single example. Another farmer near by, with similar facilities for
dressing his land, accomplished the same results.
Both were preparing and expecting to do equally
well the present season.   Now, while every farmer
cannot do this, at first, for want of an immediate
supply of manure and equal facilities for procuring labor, it may be taken as the standard of
profitable farming in the upland country of South
Carolina, which every cultivator can approximate
under any good system of farming.  Considering
that the same land will produce corn, grain, and
potatoes in abundance, and even grass, it would
seem to be difficult to know where an agriculturist could turn to find so good a prospect of
reward for his labors. The new discoveries of
an unlimited supply of artificial manure in the
inexhaustible beds of phosphate about Charleston,
come most opportunely at the present time to
enable new cultivators to put their lands at once
under profitable cultivation. These artificial manures seem to be all that is requisite to enrich
the old cotton-lands and restore their productive
power.
The Northern people, who, in their eager ignorance, rushed south after the war, thinking to
acquire easy and sudden fortunes by raising
cotton, were met by bad seasons and a falling
104 
FORMER IMMIGRATIONS.
market.  Of  course they generally failed.  No
man can reasonably expect to succeed ini any
such extempore enterprises.  As a rule, the great
agricultural products of the world yield no sudden fortunes even to the experienced cultivator.
How could it have been expected that ignorant
adventurers should reap them  in a day?  It is
the merit of agriculture, as a pursuit, not that its
profits are great, but that its results are sure and
steady, and increase just in proportion to the skill
and industry of the cultivator. Its attractions
are its pleasing conditions. And if there be an
elysium for an agriculturist, it is a fruitful soil, a
salubrious climate, and a delicious atmosphere
in which frosts and snowrs are almost unknown.
These are the advantages South Carolina proffers.
The State is thrown open anew to immigrants
by the accidental conditions of society and industry caused by the war.  And  the advantages
offered were never greater than now.  There
have been two principal migrations into the State
ill times past.  One after the battle of Culloden,
and one after the Irish rebellion of 1798.  They
were composed mainly of Scotch and Scotch-Irish.
Bothi were successful, and both have made their
mark on the State; some of its most eminent
names having been descended from them.  There
is no reason why there should not be another,
still more successful than any preceding one.
105 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
Intelligent combined action of the present race
of depressed and robbed land-owners could surely effect it. They have the power to restore the
just equilibrium of the races, and remove the
offensive political anomaly that now exists. This
ability, and the enticements to agricultural immigration that have been thus briefly suggested,
afford a solid expectation that South Carolina
will retrieve the dominion of intelligence and
probity in her political life, and enter upon a
career of material prosperity greater than any
she has ever yet experienced.
106 
CHAPTER XV.
Some Detached Observations.
DIZAY of the old families remain in Columbia,
but they are no longer rich, and keep themselves
secluded from the  general current of affairs.
Theicr places, which used to be tidy and bright,
are growing shabby and dilapidated, and the
occupants live on their departed glories and what
they have been able to save from the wreck of
their estates.
They are like the old St.-Germain aristocracy
during the latter Empire, who used to say of
Louis Napoleon and the promiscuous crowd who
occupied thie Tuileries in his reign, "We know
none of these people."
The old Wade Ihlampton mnansion, built by
the head of the family of Revolutionary memory,
which is the best establishment in Columbia, has
just passed out of the hands of the third generaration of the family-that so long occupied it. It
has been sold to the new  plebeian Governor,
Moses, an Israelite, who, having a thrifty eye to
the main chance, left the old aristocracy and 
TIlE PROSTRATE STATE.
joined the new democracy, in which he now
holds the chief place. It is one of those somer saults that tend largely to exalt our estimate of
the dignity of human nature. Colonel Preston,
the late owner and occupier of the place, espoused
a scion of the house, and now returns to his
native Virginia, whence the family, which has
achieved eminence in South Carolina, originally
emigrated.
It is estimated that  1,100 buildings were
burned in Columbia at the period of Sherman's
march, many of them the best dwellings in the
city.  The main business street, in which nearly
all the buildings were destroyed, has been to a
considerable extent rebuilt, but it is not so with
the remainder of the town, where many vacant
squares exist. Some of the money stolen from
the Treasury is being employed in erecting stately edifices on the main street.
Among the less hopeful of the future of
South Carolina are those who suggest a division
of the State, giving one portion to Georgia and
another to North Carolina, in order to get rid of
the predominance of the colored element. But
this does not seem to be a feasible scheme. It is
hard to see how a State is to be obliterated without the consent of its people, and the consent
of the black man is not likely to be obtained
to any such swamping process as this. It is not
108 
LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEES.
likely his vote could be purlchased for this object,
though all the Pattersons and Camerons of the
country were here to consummate the trade.
Sambo dotes on legislative committees. The
struggle to get on those that pay best is amusing.
The House, in their eagerness and greed, have, it
is said, increased the Railroad Committee to some
eighteen members.   Then they have strolling
committees. One was sent to New York to report on the state of the debt, and, it is alleged,
cost the State $200,000.  I-Ie is regarded as a
happy man who gets on one of these committees.
But success begets jealousy. Some of the new
members are beginning to call a halt on the old
ones. The latter are thought to have had too
much already. The Senate was lately the scene
of some of these collisions, and the old crowd were
snubbed by the new. The feeling all through
the Legislature is that the State has been outrageously robbed, but they are utterly in the dark
as to how much, or precisely in every case by
whom. There is a constant complaint that nobody can find out what the State owes, and the
majority is bribed to keep the fact a secret.  There
is a lively sense of the presence of those who a few
years ago were penniless, and now own and live in
expensive mansions, and who built and own the iron
bridge that spans the broad river that flows past
the town, and are erecting opera-hiouses and ware
109 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
houses on the main streets; but there are numerous others not so well known.  In fact, the suspicion is that pretty much everybody is implicated
in a greater or less degree.
A challenge was flung out lately on the white
immigration question by a lusty black man who
likes to display his aggressive temper. He proposed to his white brethren to bring on their immigrants. Hie did not fear them. They would
find the blacks ready. It was very plain, however,
that the white members were not ready for any
agitation of the topic in this strain. On this, as
on all subjects bearing on the present and future
relationships of the races, the whites are wholly
reserved and reticent, and apparently fearful.
There are some individuals among the colored
members who are so nearly white that no one
would suspect colored blood in their veins.  They
are showy talkers of great animation of manner,
with the same spread-eagle style that markls so
much of the oratory of wholly white men. They
are not amenable to the criticism bestowed on the
average African-Americans of the body, for they
talk intelligibly and intelligently.
In the Legislature there is a tendency to re,
trenchment and reform in such points as the expenditures in the departments, and on appropriations generally; the members had to promise this
in the late canvass. But the economies are rather
110 
THE BLACK PARLIAMENT.
nominal than real, as the gross appropriations
this year exceed those of the previous year.
It has been made a question whether the property-holders of the State would not save money
by giving every sable representative a house and
lands, that he might personally taste the sweets
of taxation.  This would seem to be the only way
I of bringing it home to him.  If it were not that
the term of service were so short, the proposition
would be worth considering.
It is not harsh to criticise members of this
blaclS Parliament in the way we do, for we only
say of them what they say of themselves. They
are in the habit of charging one another with
ignorance and venality and corruption without
stint, and it is not deemed any offense.  The
thieves were obliged, as we have said, to make a
sort of compact with their supporters at the last
election that they would stop robbing the State.
But like the drunkard who promised to quit
drinking, and still drank to intoxication by spells,
and defended himself by saying he "always excepted his sprees," so these legislative robbers clainm
the right to extort pay from everybody who is to
profit by their legislation, taking the ground that it
is no violation of their pledges, when a senatorial
election comes round, to sell their votes to the high est bidder. This is not corruption in their sense
of the term. It is only to turn an honest penny.
ill 
TEE PROSTRATE STATE.
In regard to all such shameless acts as this,
and the refusing of charters to responsible persons
to make needed improvements in the State because the members are not bribed, the respectable
white men of the Legislature say they should
blush with shame if they felt that the real character of the State was represented in the body. But
as it is, they can only plead that scoundrelism is
dominant, and that all legislation is in the hands of
unscrupulous knaves who belong in the penitentiary.  The facts fill every decent citizen with
mortification, but, outside the gang who hold control, every one claims exemption froma all responsibility for the degradation into which the State
has fallen.
The only drawback to the country, the only
hinderance to an immediate accession of population from the best agricultural classes abroad, is
this scoundrel government, which  has so long
rioted, and is yet rioting, in its robberies. There
seems to be no way of even checking their intolerable practices but to flash the flambeaux of an
outside execration in their faces.  They defy tlhe
indignation of the people they have ruined, but
they are not proof against the indignation of the
country at large. It becomes a public duty
"To lash the rascals naked through the land,"
and aid this prostrate State to recover possession
112 
A PUBLIC DUTY.
of itself, retrieve its standing before the world,
and drag to condign punishmrent the culprits who
have so londg rioted ill its spoils, and who so persistently prey upon its remains.
113 
CHAPTER XVI.
Who burned Columbia?-Ruin of the Old Families.-Entire Loss
of Property by Rich and Poor.-Individual Cases of Suffer   ing and Destitution.
THIERE has been a good deal of controversy as
to who burned Columbia.  But it is quite superfluous. The facts are clear. Wade Ilampton
burned the bridge that spanned the river at this
point, and the railroad depots, and he ordered all
the cotton in town to be burned. This he admits. But he says he countermanded the orders
about the cotton, and they were not executed.
We may disbelieve this, without impugning his
veracity.  For our commanders say the cotton
and the town were on fire when they entered it.
General Hiampton idly shelled Sherman's troops
lying in bivouac, by night, across the river. These
measures were the offspring of mere spite. They
had no military significance.  When Sherman's
troops entered the city they were exasperated,
and took their revenge by setting additional fires.
Sherman gave no orders to burn the town; and
Wade Hampton, who commanded the handful 
THLE SOUTHERN WOMAN.
of Confederate troops, says he gave none. But
Sherman's men were never mild in South Carolina.  They went there to make war, and they
made it, sometimes not according to strict rule.
But the Confederate commanders have no cause
to complain.  They did the same.  They burned
every thing right and left whenever they evacuated a place. Such, for example, was the case in
Charleston. On leaving, they not only burned
property, but they burned the valuable bridges
across the Ashley River, firom mere wantonness,
harming nobody but their own people.  The destruction served no warlike purpose, and was
scarcely an inconvenience to the Federal troops.
It was just the same in numerous other instances.
The example was dangerously contagious, and
would naturally be followed, even in the absence
of other provocations. The war burned Columnbia.
The Southern woman, as she often appeared
in the war, was not an object of great admiration
to the national troops. But there were numerous
specimens of good sense and judgment among them
that but slowly reveal themselves. One was a
widow of forty.  Iher husband was a substantial
citizen worth half a million. Hle died in the
early part of the war.  his brother was made
executor of the will.  The wife begged him to
keep out of Confederate securities. She had no
115 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
faith in them. She desired the estate to be placed
beyond the reach of the calamity which she felt
was coming. IIe pooh-poohed her suggestions,
and paid no heed to her admonitions. I1er fortune went with the common tide, and her half
million was consulned. She saved something on
her owvn account, and always converted her Confederate  money  into  gold.   WVhen  Sherman
reached Savannah she looked on the map, and
with the same sagacious judgment that she exhibited in the beginning, she determined that his
next move would be on Columbia, although the
town was then filled with fugitives from Charleston, seeking shelter and a safe retreat.   She
emptied her house of its furniture, bought a full
stock of provisions and groceries with her Confederate money, loaded the railroad cars with her
possessions, and left for the mountains.  lier
final act was to exchange her last remaining bundle of Confederate notes for gold at the rate of
sixty dollars in paper for one dollar in specie,
astonishing her broker by the expression of her
opinion that, in the next month, it would take
one hundred dollars of paper to buy one dollar in
gold, and that a month later a bushel-basket full
of it wouldn't buy one dollar. Sherman came,
and her dwelling disappeared in the flames, but
the proprietress was elsewhere. This is the story,
in brief, of one of the most fortunate of the rich
116 
THE POET TIMROD.
families of South Carolina.  A  small remainder
of a great estate was here snatched from the general conflagration by the sagacity and colurage of
a native Southern woman.  But usually the great
catastrophe was not foreseen. Every thing went
into Confederate securities; every thing to eat
and every thing to wear was consumed, and when
the war suddenly ended there was nothing left
but absolute poverty and nakedness.   Famine
fo]lowed, and suffering beyond computation, the
story of which has never been told. Rich planters' families subsisted on corn-bread when they
could get it, but often they could not, and then
they resorted to a coarse cattle-fodder known as
"cow-peas."  It is reported of the poet Timrod,
who contributed his fiery lyrics in aid of the rebellion-all that he had to give-that he and his
were saved from actual starvation, when they
were at their last gasp, just previous to his death.
Otlers fared not so well.
There were numerous large slave-holders and
property-owners in and about Columbia who went
down in the general ruin. Some were immensely
wealthy; there were several families owning 500
and 1,000 slaves apiece.  Many were proprietors
of plantations on the banks of the Mississippi.
These plantations were more or less mortgaged.
When slavery went, the mortgages consumed the
rest; and men enjoying an income of $100,000 a
.117 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
year on the opening of the war were stripped of
their last cent at its close. An elderly gentleman
of nearly eighty years, formerly a rich man, and
president of a bank of about $1,000,000 capital,
was able by great exertion to save his dwelling
from the conflagration in Columbia. It was all
he preserved from the wreck of his fortunes. Happily he was a lover of flowers, and had a large
greenhouse in his gardens. In his stripped condition, he resorted to it for support; and to-day
he lives by personally growing flowers for sale,
which he does with a cheerful assiduity that gilds
his misfortunes, and lends even a pleasing glow
to the evening of his life.  Old Wade Ilampton,
of Revolutionary memory, who won his spurs at
the battle of Eutaw Springs, and was an aid-decamp of General Washington, was a resident of
Columbia, and owned vast estates. He and his
family were the grandees of their county for all
these subsequent generations.  They nulmbered
their slaves by the thousand when the war began,
and had large plantations in other States. The
family is now broken and scattered. The great
old family mansion and extensive grounds filled
with rare exotics, the abode of luxurious hospitality for seventy years, has, since the war, been
haunted by ghosts, and now, dilapidated and falling into decay, passes into the hands of strangers.'
In the vicinity lived a gentleman whose income,
118 
SAMPLE CASES.
when the war broke out, was rated at $150,000 a
year. He was not only a victim to the general
ruin, but peculiar circumstances added to his misfortunes. Not a vestige of his whole vast property of millions remains to-day. Not far distant
were the estates of a large proprietor and a wellknown family, rich and distinguished for generations. Theslavesaregone. Tllhe famnily isgone. A
single scion of the house remains, and he peddles
tea by the pound and molasses by the quart, on a
corner of the old homestead, to the former slaves
of the fanlily, and thereby earns his livelihood.
These are sample cases merely, that can be
easily multiplied, as we may readily conceive,
when we remember that the average size of the
plantations in South Carolina, at the census of
1860, was no less than 1,600 acres.
But the poor people were stripped as well as
the rich.  Though they had but little, yet that
little was their all.  And to lose it was to lose all.
And to this was to be- added a grievous disappointment. They were selling their butter for
fifty dollars a pound, and their chickens for sixty
dollars a pair, in Confederate notes, and thley were
hoarding their imaginary money, feeling they were
sure to come out rich in the end. Great was their
dismay and their astonishment when they found
they had leaned on a broken reed, and their visions
of sudden wealth had vanished in an instant.
119 
CHAPTER XVII.
The Frauds of the State Government.
THERE would seem to be no species of public
firaud unknown to, and unpractised by, the men
who have been in possession of the government
of South Carolina since the close of the war.
A simple narrative of events, about which
there is no dispute, is perhaps the briefest, as it
is the most effectual, way of enabling the reader
to form an unbiassed judgment upon the transactions that have occurred.
In what we have now to say, we draw largely
from that authentic record, known as the " Report of the Joint Select Committee to inquire into
the Condition of Affairs in the late Insurrectionary States, made to the two Houses of Congress,
February 10, 1872."
From the mass of testimony presented in that
report, and from the views of the majority and
minority expressed therein, we extract what bears
upon the case, aiming to eliminate every thing
of a merely partisan character.
The principal frauds practised in South Caro 
THE PRINCIPAL FRAUDS.
lina come under several heads, whlichll we will
treat separately. They are   1. Those which relate to the increase of the
State debt.
2. The frauds practised in the purchase of
lands for the freedmen.
3. The railroad frauds.
4. The election frauds.
5. The frauds practised in the redemption of
the notes of the Bank of South Carolina.
6. The census fraud.
7. The fraud in furnishing the legislative
chamibers.
8. General and legislative corruption.
6
121 
CHIAPTER XVIII.
OnI the Fiauds which relate to the Increase of the State Debt.
WE  have elsewhere  stated that, in round
numbers, the State debt of South Carolina has
been increased from $5,000,000 to $15,000,000
since the war closed.
It turns out in this, as in almnost every other
point, that the fuller the investigation the worse
the disclosures. The debt is a great deal more
than $15,000,000, with nothing to show for it.
There is a general agreement over the fact, as
will be seen by the statements which follow, that
the whole State debt, as late as 1867, was, in
round numbers, $5,400,000. To which should
be  added computed over-dlue interest and exchang,e to the amount of $384,000.  But in this
statement we make no account of a contingent
liability of the State, at that time and now, of
nearly $3,000,000 as indorser of the bonds of
the South Carolina Railroad, and the Savannah
& Charleston Railroad, corporations understood to
be perfectly solvent. These we therefore dismiss
from our estimates and calculations. 
FRAUDS (CONTINUED).
Neither do we reckon in this estimate the old
iability of the State for certain bills of circulation of the Bank of the State of South Carolina,
to the  amount of over $1,250,000, which will
appear elsewhere, and which since the war have
been disposed of by a specific issue of State
bonds for $1,590,000; the difference between
these two sums having been apparently stolen
by the manipulators of the transaction.
Governor Scott was inaugurated in July, 1868.
The actual State debt, excluding the items mentioned, was, just previous to that time, as we
lhave seen, a little less than $5,800,000.
But it owed some current liabilities for interest and expenses, the legacy of the anomalous
period pireceding Scott's advent. Just what these
amounted to, does not appear. All we know is,
that the first Legislature under Scott's administration, in August, 1868, passed two acts appropriating $1,600,000 to pay interest money, and relieve
the wants of the Treasury, and in the following
February (1869) appropriated $1,000,000 for the
same purpose.
These sums were designed to tide over the
crisis. But, although these are said to be the
only authorized bonds of the State issued for
generalpurposes, a very large amount of bonds
was ordered of and printed  by the American
Bank Note Company of New York, amounting
123 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
in all to $22,500,000, for which the State authorities are answerable.
If to this $22,500,000 we  add  previouslyexisting bonds, we have an apparent aggregate of
$27,900,000, as the bonded debt of the State.
Whether these bonds are all on the market
is unknown. Attempts have been made from
time to time in the Legislature to get at the facts,
but they have always been frustrated. At the
late session, ending in March, 18X3, an effort was
made to induce the Legislature to pass a bill,
calling upon all holders of State bonds to bring
them forward for registration, in order that the
actual sumn issued might be known and established.  But so. deep was the demoralization of
that body, that it was suborned into giving its
refusal to the passage of this salutary measure,
by those who have profited by the fraudulent
issue of the bonds, and who are not ready for the
consequences that would necessarily ensue from
such an exposition.
In addition to this issue of twenty-seven million nine hundred thousand dollars ($27,900,000),
the Legislature of 1868-'69 passed an act guaranteeing the bonds of the Blue Ridge Railroad to
the amount of $4,000,000, and also an act guaranteeing the bonds of the Greenville &.Columbia
Railroad to the amount of about $2,000,000.
The names of the parties engaged, and the
124 
A RAID ON THE TREASURY.
character of these two transactions, will be found
in a following chapter.
Since the period of these acts and the subsequent investigation of the facts in the reports
herein quoted, the State government has been
engaged in business of a similar character, which
adds constantly to the magnitude of the debt.
It is understood that the late Speaker (now
Governor) did, while in his former office, issue
some $400,000 of pay certificates, for which the
Treasury is now  liable.   There has also been
authorized a scrip issue of the Blue Ridge Rlailroad, of $1,800,000, thrown into circulation by
being made receivable for taxes, thus consuming
the available funds of the State, and swelling its
indebtedness in a form which exacts increased
taxation. As the operation was purely speculative, and designed only as a raid on the Treasury,
without any design of resuscitating: a defunct
concern, it is quite in character that a report.
should now be rifet, not only that the $1,800,000
of scrip has been issued, but that there have
been three times that sum issued, in three independent sets of securities. But, adding only the
$6,000,000 of indebtedness of the two railroads
before mentioned, and we havel an estimated aggregate State debt of thirty-three million nine
hundred& thousand dollars ($33,900,000).
There is an allegation that some of the bonds
125 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
that go to create this indebtedness have never
been issued, but are lying in the Treasury and in
the hands of the Bank Note Company. And in
the various estimates of the debt by the State Legislative committee of investigation, and by the
congressional committee, detailed in the following
pages, there has been sometimes more and sometimes less credence given to those allegations.
The only safe way, in our opinion, to estimate
the bonded debt, is to take the whole amount of
the bonds executed by the Bank Note Company
on the orders of the Scott government, and add
it to the previous outstanding bonds.  These two
sums make $27,900,000.  The fact that the parties implicated in the known large fraudulent issues, bribed the Legislature to refuse an investigation into the actual facts, shows that the "confessed
debt" of $16,371,000, shown in the legislative
comnmittee's report, is a false exhlibit.  If it were
not, why should they decline the proposition to
have it verified? But there is another way of
proving the overwhelming indebtedness of the
State, that admits of no question.
Since the examination referred to in the following pages was made, another fiscal year has
elapsed, and we have the report of the Treasurer
and Controller for the year ending November,
1872.
This report shows, in its general debtor and
126 
TIIE CONTROLLER'S REPORT.
creditor stateinert, that the State owes, on bonded
andi current indebtedness, which lhas found its
wsay on to theo books of the Treasury, the sum of
$26,621,000.  Of this it owes the Bank of the
State of South Carolina $1,839,000.  B3ut the
statement also shows that the State has sundry
credits with that institution; of money, of sinkingfund securities, of bank-stock, etc.  Il estimating
the State's affairs for this occasion, we strike out
all its accounts with the bank, both debt and
credit. We take it for granted it has no actual
assets there, for the reason that it has no available
or real assets anywhere, as they have all been
exhausted long ago.
Striking out, then, this item of indebtedness
to the bank, which we will allow to be offset by
its credits, though it is quite possible this makes
too favorable a showing for the State, we find
the following result, as the upshot of the Controller's report:
WThole State indebtedness.... $26,621,917 00
Deduct due to bank......      1,839,011 00
Total............         $24,782,906 00
Leaving an outstanding debt of twenty-four million seven hundred and eighty-three thousand dollars ($24,783,000) in round numbers.
:Now, on an examination of the resources of the
State in the Treasury, as presented by the oppo
127 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
site side of the ledger in this report, we find that
the aggregate of available funds, consisting of
debts of collectors, county treasurers, and other
officers, and uncollected taxes, and all other
available resources; counting every thing which
appears  in  the  shape of debt, to  be  good,
this aggregate, we say, amounts to just about
$1,000,000. So that, according to the showing
of the books of the Treasury, the State owes
a  round sum of twenty-four  million  dollars
(,$24,oo000o,o000oo).
What the amount of unreckoned and unacknowledged obligations of the State is, that have
not yet found their way on to the books of the
Treasury, we have no means of knowing. Neither
do we know how many of the State bonds of the
$22,500,000 printed by the New York Bank Note
Company, are yet to be added to the quantity on
record as having been already issued.  The mysterious action of the parties implicated in their
emission, and their aversion to having the issues
verified, excite well-founded suspicion that this
record of the indebtedness of the State will have
to be nmuchl increased when  all the facts are
known.
It should be added that the indebtedness calculated above includes a war debt of about $2,500,000, which will ultimately have to be stricken
out of the accounts. But the accruing interest on
128 
AN ENORMOUS DEBT.
the debt, and the charging up of as yet uinrecognized obligations, will not be long in supplying
its place.
It should also be said that the debt shown on
the Controller's books takes no account of the
obligations of the State in its indorsement of the
$6,000,000 of bonds of the Blue Ridge and Columbia &  Greenville Railroads, which is so much
more to be added to the aggregate of $24,000,000,
and for which there is no security.
The figures of the Controller's report show
an enormous floating debt, and if it should turn
out that the whole of the State bonds printed
have really gone into circulation through a surreptitious issue, the amount of the State debt will
be several millions beyond the highest sum we
have named.
With this preliminary exposition, we give way
to the introduction of the testimony, the comiments, and the conclusions of the State legislative committee, and of the joint committee
of Congress, who investigated the subject in
1872.
The following is the statement of the committee of investigation of the South Carolina Legislature, appointed by the Republicans:
The actual debt, then, if the " severe personal scrutiny"
of the Governor "is correct," is as follows, viz. -
129 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
Debt of the State, July, 1868, less $9,000 old bonds
redeemed...................................
Bonds issued in 1869, for funding bills of Bank of
the State of South Carolina.................
Bonds represented to have been delivered H. H.
Kimpton, financial agent, New York.........
To which must be added the bonds for which the
college land scrip sold, now in the hands of
the financial agent, w-hich cannot be less than
And we have a total confessed debt of...........
To this can be safely added the sterling loan
bonds "deposited for safe-keeping," subject
to order, $8,500,000, of which  have  been
,rigned and made ready for issue, and the
arrangements  perfected for the negotiation
of the entire loan, uiess the law authorizing
the said bonds is immediately repealed, and
the bonds canceled before they can be nego    tiated, viz..................................
Which would give an aggregated old and new
bonded debt of............................
To whichl add the contingent debt, viz...........
22,371,306 27
6,787,608 20
$29,158,914 47
:e
Of this amount it is said there are in the hands of
the financial agent, as collateral security for
loans, $3,773,000 of new bonds, and a deduc    tion of that amount is claimed from the whole
amount of nev bonds in use; but, as collat    crals, they are virtually a part of the debt,
ized bonds, including sterling loan, viz...... 22,844,914 47
And the fraudulent issue is......................   $6,314,000 00
The committee assure the General Assembly they are
confident no one could have labored more assiduously or
thoroughly tban they have done in the work of investi
i f, o
$5,398,306 27
1,259,000 00
9,514,000 00
200,000 00
$16,371,306 2t
6,000,000 00 
THE PLUNDERING RINQ.
gation of tlhe various financial departments of the State,
as well as other avenues of discovery.  They do not feel,
however, that they can safely say they have given the
whole extent of extravagance or criminal indulgence withl
which the management of the funds and credit of the State
has been characterized.  There is an unknown "floating
debt;" the financial agent is still unpaid; he is to present
his "honest claims" proportioned to his "faithful service."
And, as millions have been tossed about in the multiplied
transactions of this " experienced and competent" financier, small considerations will be no "compensation" to
him; liberal satisfaction must be awarded;  and( if the
lithograph-electrotype printing-press has not piled up, in
bonds or stocks, sufficient already to cancel his, withl other
illegitimate demands, and his greedy hold upon the State is
not loosened, then millions more must be added to the
gigantic dimensions of "what we are responsible for," so
far as printed illegalities can make us. The committee, in
view of the atrocity of these disclosures-the workl of the
present administration, or rather a ring composed of leading officers of the government of the State, unhesitatingly
say that the Republican party, which has elevated tihem to
power, must show its condemnation of such treachery and
knavery by an immediate and united effort-by legislative
enactments, as well as by every other deliberate measureto bring to justice those who have prostituted the authority
with which they have been clothed, and so flagrantly and
criminally imperiled the trusts to them confided.
The millions that have been put in their hands could
not have been authorized or manipulated for honest purposes, but for plunder and dishonest gain. It is in vain
that the public is appealed to with statements that this
frightful discovery "is a groundless misrepresentation and
gross frabrication."  The American Bari  Note Company
131 
THiE PROSTRATE STATE.
gives us the figur,es; they speak for themselves, and tell us
that there have bcen printed the following bonds and stocks:
Bonds and coupons to pay interest on public debt.... $2,000,000
Bonds and coupons to redeem bills receivable........   500,000
Bonds and coupons to redeem bills of Bank of State
of South Carolina............................... 1,590,000
Bonds and coupons for the relief of the Treasury..... 1,000,000
Bonds and coupons for conversion of State securities.    8,200,000
Bonds and coupons for the land commission........... 700,000
Bonds and coupons for sterling funded debt......... 6,000,000
Registered certificates of stock...................... 2,550,000
Total................................... $22,540,000
Of this amount there has been sent by the American
Bank Note Company to the Governor, $2,350,000; to the
Treasurer, $17,490,000; to the Controller-General, $200,000, and there remains in the hands of the Bank Note
Company, subject to order, $2,500,000.  It has been said
by the authors of this enormous fraud, as if to blind the
true intent of the extravagant issue, tiat, " although such
an amount of bonds had been printed, all had not been
issued nor signed, nor had they been printed with the
intention of increasing the State debt, but are in possession of tihe State authorities."
Sutch a declaration, like a desperate confession, is the
strongest evidence of guilt; it is too transparent to convince even the most credulous. "What was the object of
printing these bonds," has been asked, "if it was not the
intention to use them? " If there is no informality in
the transaction, why let the credit of the State be hazarded by withholding the actual amount of these bonds now
upon the market?  Why need such a sum be in the hands
of the State authorities? What object have they in possessing more than the laws authorizing the respective loans
have called for?  Is there any  statute  authorizing an
132 
TIIE FEARFUL TRUTIH.
indefinite printing of bonds'"to be in the possession of
the State authorities " to be used at will?  Can the acts of
the Legislature to pay the indebtedness of the State, or for
the conversion of its securities, be construed into such a
wholesale prerogative? Is there a necessity to provide
more bonds than there are needs for them?  Plainly, must
we declare we cannot believe other than the fearful truth
that stares us in the face, that the bonds and stocks printed
by the American Bank Note Company represent the liabilities of the State, for which the faith and credit of the
State, however unlawfully presented; has been pledged for
the payment; that, instead of the debt of the State of
South  Carolina being, as the Controller-General in his
report for the fiscal year ending October 31, 1871, says,
$7,665,708.98;  or as Mfr. Trenholm, of the Tax-payers'
Ccnvention, gives it, viz., $9,869.108; or as the governor,
in his statement to the congressional commrnittee, makes it,
viz., $9,528,964.10; or as the present committee, from the
investigation of erroneous accounts, have, in the previous
pages, shown, viz.,- $9,865,908.98; it is, allowing all the
deductions to be made that, in October last, while in New
Yorl, were claimed should be, not less than $14,040,000,
without the addition of the present contingent liabilities
of the State, viz., 86,787,608.20, which  would represent
a debt of $20,787,608.20.
In order that those who are implicated may be fairly
dealt with, the committee will give the benefit, in their
report, of their claims for deductions.
It is said the sterling loanbonds should be deducted, as they have
been returned by the treasurer to the American Bank Note
Company, viz.................................... $3,500,000
Also, bonds for the conversion of State securities
printed by mistake of the Bank Note Company,
with green backs instead of blue, (the uniform
color,) to the amount cf.......................... 500,000
133 
THiE PROSTRATE STATE.
Brought forward.............           $4,000,000
Also, the first issue of the bonds for the payment of
the interest on the public debt, which, having those
words printed on their face, would, the financial
agent thought, if issued, injure the credit of the
State; therefore, by his recommendation, an equal
amount, with the words, "Authorized by act ap   proved August 26, 1868," upon their face, werec
printed; this deduction claimed is................ 1,000,000
Also, the conversion bonds delivered the Treasurer
October 4 and 11, 1871, which the Govcrnor refuised
to sign, viz......................................    1,000,000
Also, the balance of sterling loan bonds waiting sig  nature and orders for delivery, already printed and
in the hands of thie American Bank Note Com  panly, viz........................................ 2,500,000
Total of deduction claimed................... $8,500,000
whlich, from the $22,540,000 already given, reduce the bonds and
stocks for which the authors say the State is accountable, and the
Governor, in his unlucid moments, while in New York, intimated
might be correct, viz., $14,040,000.
They concluded  thieir report thus, beginninlg
on page 266 and ending on 269:
Since the foregoing was prepared for the press, the
State Treasurer, as well as "Citizens' Investigating Com-lmittee," made their statements, and the Governor, in his
last message to the General Assembly, November 28, 1871,
reiterates them, in order to relieve the public mind "and
correct the gross exaggerations that are being diligently
circulated in reference to our finances and the entire
administration of the State." Allowing all they have
claimed in their printed report, viz., that there have been
destroyed, canceled, deposited for safe keeping,  and  on
hand in the State Treasury, bonds to the amount of
$13,026,000, then the entire bonded debt, actual and contingent, is $21,708,914.47, from which deduct contingent
-i:i,4 
EXTRAVAGANT MISMANAGEMENT.
railroad bonds, viz., $6,787,608.20. and the real bonded
dlebt, is $14,921,306.37; from which also deduct the old
bonded debt, or the debt as it existed when the present
financial managers came into power, viz, $5,407,306.27, and
they reveal the extravagant and unwarranted issue of bonds
and stocks (since their mismanagement of the finances)
of no less than $9,514,000, which is just the amount represented to have been delivered to the financial agent in
New York. An issue of nearly $2,000,000 more than
the vwhole bonded debt, old and new, as exhibited in the
Controller-General's statement, October 31, 1871, and
within $355,108 of the entire debt, as stated by fr.
George Trenholm to the Tax-payers' Convention, and only
$14,964.10 less than Governor Scott declared to the congressional investigating committee in September last, was
the total issue of bonds and stock from June, 1868, to
September 20, 1871, after deducting the bonds and stock
issued for military defense. It will be remembered that
the various acts authorizing loans since thle inauguration of
the present government admit of an issue of $3,000,000;
and that the act for the conversion of the State securities
was not supposed to be an authority to increase the debt
already legalized, but a provision of law to convert all
outstanding issues into one uniform class of bonds, the old
bonds to be canceled when the conversion bonds were
issued. Such a course, however, has not been pursued.
The managers were seemingly determined not to keep the
liabilities of the State at their legal standard, but by the
new process of conversion to create a larger amount of
bonds as collaterals, while they mendaciously declared that
the debt was not enlarged. The bonds converted were
not canceled, but still used and hypothecated, and by the
financial agent, whose instructions or directions could
come from no other source than the financial board. If
135 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
we, then, from the $9,514,000 of bonds placed in the
financial agent's hands, deduct the legally authorized
bonds, viz., $3,200,000, we find an illegal over-issue of
$6,314,000.
Here, then, we have the indisputable evidence that all
the financial officers of the State, as well as the Governor
himself, in their State and official papers, have hitherto
disguised the true condition of the debt, as well as the issue of bonds, and we have the Executive confession that he
too was deceived, and that all his debt statements, up to
September last, "were made according to the best of his
knowledge at those dates."
But the fact which now presents itself shows that his
Excellency's knowledge in September last was sadly deficient, or the excess in bonds and stocks over his statement
at that date, now apparent, has been created since.
However, as no bonds or stocks could be authorized or
issued- without his knowledge, the conclusion must  be,
that, while "charging upon others any just share of their
responsibilities for the evil consequences of their acts,"
he has somewhat  "hesitated fully to admit his own."
Nor can his final "severe personal scrutiny" convince us
that the Treasrer's last exhibit of the actual debt of the
State is full and correct.
It is admitted now, which never would have been done
had not the joint special financial investigating committee
discovered the fact, about the last of October, that the
Governor and Treasurer of the State authorized the American Bank Note Company to print various bonds and
stocks, amounting to $22,540,000, all of which, at the
time of the discovery, had been delivered to the Governor,
Treasurer, and Controller-General, except $2,500,000 of
the sterling.loan bonds, which were waiting the orders of
the proper officials.
136 
TAX-PAYERS' REPORT.
In conclusion, if, through what has been revealed
herein, the innocent, by their intimate or official relationship which they have held with the perpetrators of these
wholesale frauds, suffer an equal condemnation with the
guilty, let the arraignment of the robbers be speedy, and
their punishment as sure. The terrible wrongs committed demand that judgment shall be meted out at once.
Position nor place should delay the work of strict accountability. Let the axe fall upon the heads of corrupt officials,
however high their prerogatives. The credit of the State,
its honor, its future respect, every thing that makes the
people of a Commonwealth worthy esteem or commendation
-her trusts betrayed, her pledges violated,  the frauds
committed in her name, by reckless, shameless traducers
and plunderers-all cry out for justice.  Let no moment
be lost in the exercise of duty. The dominant party must
recognize the responsibility now resting upon its shoulders,
and deal with bad men, though they may be their acknowledged leaders, as exact justice demands, olr witness the
sceptre of their power pass from their hands amid the
execrations of an outraged and indignant people.
TAX-PAYERS' REPORT.
On the 12th of l3ay, 1871, the tax-payers convention, which met at Columbia, reported the following:
THE PUBL!O DEBT OF THE STATE.
The following is a statement of the bonds and stock
of the State on which its name appears, outstanding, as
near as could be ascertained during the short session of the
convention:
137' 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
Amount of bonds and stock outstand  ing on the 1st of October, 1867, as
exhibited by the report of the Con  troller-General for November, 1867,
exclusive of bonds issued for mili tary defense...................... $5,407,215 23
To this must be added the difference
between the true amount due on the
fire-loan sterling bonds past due,
unpaid and payable in London, to
wit, $788,222.27, and that stated in
the Controller-General's report, to
wit, $484,444.51................... 383,777 76
$5,790,992 99
Amount duc on bonds issued under acts of 1860 and
1861 for military defense, as by comptroller's re port for October, 1867........................... 2,854,679 78
Total as principal of October, 1867........... $8,645,672 77
Bonds issued by present adninistration as follows:
Under act approved August 26, 1868
for redemption of bills receivable
Under act approved August 26, 1868
for payment of interest on publi
debt.............................
Under act approved September 1
1868, for funding bills of the Bank
of the State of South Carolina....
Under act approved February 17, 1869
for relief of the Treasury........
Under act approved March 27, 1869
for Land Commission............
Under act approved March 1, 187
for Land Commission............
- $4,558,550 00
Total outstanding obligations of the State as
principal.................................$13,204,222 77
138
$500,000 00
1,100,000 00
. 1,258,550 0
1
. 1,000,000 0
7 -
200,000 0
7
500,000 0 
TAX-PAYERS' REPORT.
Statement of Contingent Liabilities of the State of Souith
Carolina arising from the indorsement of railroad bonds:
South Carolina Railroad bonds, pay  able in 1868, secured by first mort  gage.............................
Charleston  &   Savannah  Railroad
bonds, payable in 1877, secured by
first mortgage....................
Savannah & Charleston Railroad
bonds, under act of 1869, payable
in 1869, secured by first mortgage..
Laurens Railroad bonds, payable in
1879, secured by first mortgage....
Spartanburg & Union Railroad
bonds, payable in 1878-'179, secured
by first mortgage.................
Greenville & Columbia Railroad
bonds and certificates of indebted ness, payable in 1881, 1882, 1883,
and 1888, under acts of 1861, 1866,
and 1869, secured by first mortgage
Blue Ridge Railroad bonds, under act
of 1868...........................
$8,695,608 20
Indebtedness of the State as principal and guaran tor, inclusive of bonds issued for military defense $22,899,830 97
Less amount due as of October, 186', on bonds is sued for military defense........................ 2,854,679 78
Indebtedness of the State as principal and guaran tor, exclusive of war-debt....................... 20,045,151 19
Judge Poland, of tile congressional committee, speaks of the debt in the f]llowing paragraphs of his report:
The controversy existing in this State as to the amount
139
1,426,,45 80
4,000,000 00 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
of its debt illustrates the spirit of partisan opposition to
the State government by those who complain of the increase of debt, and at the same time the utterly indefensible conduct of the officers of the State, which renders such
a question doubtful or even difficult of a clear, honest, and
conclusive solution.
The obstacles with which the State government has to
deal in the bitterness of hostility evinced to its every act,
is manifest when the testimony of those who complain of
the increase of State debt is examined.   Take, for instance, that of Judge Carpenter: in the increase of State
debt attributed to Governor Scott's administration, he includes $500,000 of bonds issued to meet the debt incurred
during the previous administration of Provisional Governor Orr; $1,000,000 of bonds issued to pay the interest
of the former debt of the State which accumulated during
the war and remained unpaid; and $1,259,000 of bonds
issued to redeem the notes of the State Bank, for which
the faith of the State was pledged. These were all debts
existing before Governor Scott's administration began, but
they are classed with the burdens which the State is bearing under his rule. It is to be remarked also that a portion of the State Bank bills were issued during the war,
and ought to be rejected as issued for war purposes, but,
the amount being uncertain, they were included in those
to be redeemed. This much of the debt was clearly forbidden to be paid by the terms of the fourteenth amendment; but that ground of objection was not urged by any
of the complainants. But, on the other hand, the statements
made by the Governor, the Controller, by the State
Treasurer, and financial agent of the State, vary so much
from the statements derived fiom other sources claiming
to have knowledge of the actual amount of the debt, of
the over-issue of bonds, and of the hypothecation of others,
140 
GOV. SCOTT'S EXPLANATION.
that the real amnount of debt seems to be an unsettled
problem, involving Governor, Treasurer, and State agent
in charges of dishonest and unlawful conduct, and presenting a state of such uncertainty, upon a question which the
records of the State ought to settle at once upon examination, that the existence of the controversy is in itself disgraceful to all these officers, and cannot but be disastrous
to the credit and interests of the Commonwealth.
We append the explanation of Governor Scott
in regard to the large increase of the State indebtedness, and also the comments of the congressional committee thereon, in a report ~romin
the Hon. J. E. Stevenson. The Governor, in his
special message of January 9, 1872, says:
In the fall of 1868 I visited New-York City for the purpose of borrowing money on the credit of the State on
coupon bonds, under the provisions of the acts of August
26, 1868. I had the assistance of Mr. II. I. Kimpton,
United States Senator F. A. Sawyer, and Mr. George S.
Cameron. I called at several of the most prominent banking-houses to effect the negotiation of the required loan,
and they refused to advance any money upon our State
securities, for those securities had been already branded
with the threat of a speedy repudiation by the political opponents of the administration, who have ever since howled
the same cry against the State credit. As the persons who
made this threat controlled the press of the State, they
were enabled to impress capitalists abroad with the false
idea of a speedy reaction that would soon place them again
in authority.
As the capitalists wvell knew that these persons, when in
power in 1862, did repudiate their debts due Northern
141 
THiE PROSTRATE STATE.
creditors, their distrust of our bonds was very natural and
apparently well founded. It soon became evident to every
man familiar with our financial standing in New York that,
to negotiate the loan authorized, the question was not what
we would takefor the bonds, but what we could getfor them.
After much effort, and the most judicious management, I
succeeded in borrowing money, through Mr. Cameron, at
the rate of four dollars in bonds for one dollar in currency,
the bonds being rated at seventy-five per cent. below their
par value, or at twenty-five cents on the dollar. This loan,
however, was only effected at the extravagant rate of one
and a half per cent. per month, or eighteen per cent. a year
-a rate only demanded on the most doubtful paper, to cover
what is deemed a great risk-for the money loaned.
Subsequent loans were effected at a higher valuation of
the bonds, but at rates.of interest varying from fifteen to
twenty per cent., in addition to commissions necessarily to
be paid the financial agent. If, then, $3,200,000 in money
have cost the State $9,514,000 in bonds, it does not, therefore, follow that the financial board have criminally conspired against the credit of the State, and, still less, that any
one member of the board can justly be held up to public
execration, or stigmatized by an accusation of "high crimes
and misdemeanors," for the assumed results of its action.
It is proper that I should add that the armed violence which
has prevailed in this State for the past three years has had
upon our bonds the same effect as actual war, in lessening
their purchasing value, as money is dearer in war than in
peace.  Ku-kluxism made capitalists shrink from touching
the bonds of this State, as a man would shrink from touching a pestilential body.
Those who complain of the low price at which our
bonds have sold in the markets of the country, and that it
has cost nine millions of bonds to buy less than three and
142 
THE NATURE OF THE DEBT.
a half mrillions of dollars in currency, have only to examine
the testimony being developed before the United States
court, now in session in the capital of the State, to find an
easy solution for every financial evil that has afflicted the
people.
The committee add:
This may explain the increase of del)t, and it is probable that money could not have been otherwise procured.
Yet we cannot agree that it was proper to submit to such
disastrous and degrading terms continually for three years.
IHad the credit of the State been unsullied up to 1868, it
might have been expedient to make light loans on almost
any conditions to preserve her good name, or a great emergency might have justified such terms temporarily for
limited amounts; but for a State to go upon the "street"
as a mendicant borrower, and remain there buffeted from
b)rokler to broker for three years, raising money to pay old
and dishonored debts at a cost of three dollars in renewed
obligations for every dollar paid, seems to us indefensible.
It is not justified by showing that it was legal, nor by the
fact that citizens of the State conspired to destroy her credit
in order to undermine the government.
The debt proper in 1871 is controverted. The documents before us tend to establish that the amount outstanding on the 20th day of December, 1871, was $15,768,306.27. This includes $3,773,000 bonds held as collateral
for a floating debt, alleged to be about $900,000. The old
bonded debt outstanding in 1868 was $6,454,306.27.  Bonds
have since been issued and delivered to the financial agent
amounting to $9,514,000.  Total, $15,968,306.27.  There
are bonds held as sinking fund $200,000, which leaves bonds
outstanding $15,768,306.27. This includes $3,773,000 bonds
held as collateral for the floating debt, estimated at $900,
143 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
000. It is claimed that these hypothecated bonds should
be deducted and the floating debt added, which would
make the debt $12,895,306.27. If the State were able to
meet her obligations as they mature, there could be no
reasonable objection to this deduction, but it is admitted
that these bonds are pledged, on the street, in New-York
City, at twenty-five cents on the dollar, to secure a floating
debt nearly equal to their value at that rate; that the credit
of the State is and has long been so depressed as to place
her bonds at the mercy of usurers; that her financial agent
has been accustomed, under authority of law, to pledge her
securities at such rates; and that her bonds have been
repeatedly sacrificed for want of means to redeem them.
Hence we include these hypothecated bonds in our estimate of the debt.
There are bonds in the State Treasury, known as "the
sterling loan," amounting to $6,000,000; of these, $3,500,000 have been executed, and $2,500,000 are unsigned. It is
claimed that these bonds should be added to the outstanding debt. If the officials who have them in charge were
men of acknowledged trustworthiness, such a claim would
seem absurd. Certainly no financier would ask that bonds
of the United States, printed but unsigned, or executed but
unissued, in the vaults of the Treasury of the United States,
the property of the Government, should be included in the
national debt.  But when officers of a State have concealed
the truth and made false or grossly erroneous statements;
when they have speculated on the expiring credit of the
State, and grown rich while she has become bankrupt;
when they are charged with corruption on probable proofs,
and do not attempt, having opportunity, to meet the
charges, prudent men may question the safety of funds in
their hands.  The risk is greater of executed than of unexecuted bonds, as a single officer might use the one, while
144 
j
JUDGE CARPENTER'S STATEMENT.
misapplication of the other would require concert. If the
$3,500,000 executed bonds were added, the amount would
be $19,268,306.27. If to this the $2,500,000 unexecuted
were added, the total would be $21,768,306.27. Having
presented the facts and alternate results, we deem it due the
State to say that, however well-grounded apprehensions as
to unissued bonds may be, they relate not to the past or the
present, but to the future; not to the amount of debt now,
or on any day past, but to what it may become; and before
allowing such fears to control our judgment, even as to the
future, we should consider the effect of recent and current
events in South Carolina.
Judge Carpenter, who testified before the
committee on the subject of the debt, says:
Question. What is your opinion of the amount of the
bonds of the State of South Carolina that have been hypothecated?
Answer. My opinion is, that all the bonds authorized
by the Legislature have been issued, and so far as I know
they have all either been sold or hypothecated. They are
as follows: By act of August 26, 1868, for redemption
of bills receivable, $500,000; by act of same date, for payment of interest on public debt, $1,000,000; by act of
September 15, 1868, for funding bills of Bank of the State
of South Carolina, $1,258,550-I see he puts it at more
than I thought; by act of February 17, 1869, for the relief of the Treasury, $1,000,000; by act of March 27, 1869,
for purposes of the Land Commission, $200,000; and by act
of March 1, 1870, for the same purpose, $500,000; making a
total of $4,458,550. I understand that to be the increase
of the State debt, so far as the bonded debt of the State is
concerned, since Governor Scott went into office; and
those bonds I understand to have been all sold or hy              7
145 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
pothecated. In regard to the act for the relief of the
treasury, it is very peculiar in its phraseology; perhaps
not peculiar when taken in connection with certain statutes
of the United States, but peculiar in connection with the
statutes of South Carolina,or of any other State, so far as I
am apprised. The State collected that year over $1,100,000
in taxes from the people; a sum twice as great as it ever
cost before the war to run the entire machinery of the government of South Carolina, and more than twice as great as
it cost during Governor Orr's administration. After collecting that sum of money, they then passed this act for the relief of the Treasury.  The act was worded something in this
way: The Governor is authorized to borrow $1,000,000 for
the relief of the Treasury; and he was further authorized
to sell the bonds of the State for that purpose, at a price
to be fixed by him, the Controller-General, and the Treasurer-General, or to hypothecate them without any price
being fixed. Now, how many bonds have been issued under that act, which as you see may authorize him to issue
$2,000,000 instead of $1,000,000, I do not know, and
nobody but the Controller, the Treasurer, and the Governor does know. They admit that they have issued $1,000,000; how many more they have issued I do not know.
Question. But they may issue as many bonds as in
their judgment would produce to them $1,000,000.
Answer. Yes sir; they could issue any quantity of
bonds that by hypothecation would bring $1,000,000 into
the Treasury. The act authorized them to do that
Question. Even though it might require $2,000,000
or $2,500,000 to produce that sum?
Answer.  Just so.  I think this statement is incorrect in
another respect; I do not think it states the debt on the
1st of October, 1867, as large as it was. It states it to be
$5,407,215.23.   I think it was  about $500,000 more
146 
STATEMENT (CONTINUED)
than that. I have made very careful investigations of this
subject.  It was some time ago, and it was then perfectly
fresh in my mind.  My conclusion, from  the reports and
every thing I could get hold of, was that the debt of
the State was abo,at $6,000,000 on the 1st of October, 1867.
But, taking this statement of the Controller-General that
the debt was then $5,407,215.23, then, in my judgment,
there should be added to that the sum of $4,458,550 of
bonds authorized by the Legislature to be issued by Governor Scott's administration; and then, in the next place,
there should be added $4,000,000 of bonds guaranteed by
the State to the Blue Ridge Railroad Company, and the
mortgage for which was released by the last Legislature;
and, in the third place, there should be added $2,000,000 of
bonds in precisely the same condition in connection with
the Greenville & Columbia Railroad.
Question. As this seems to be the proper place, state,
as succinctly as you can, why that should be added as a
debt, and whether it is not as certainly a debt as any portion of the funded debt.
Aiswer. Perhaps I had better go on with this statement, so that it can all be summed up together.
Qucestion. Very well; go on and complete your statement as you desire.
Answer. Then there should be added about $1,000,000-I am  not  certain as to the precise amount-of
bonds to the Spartanburg & Union Railroad, and to the
Laurensburg Railroad. The reason whly I place in the
list of debts of South Carolina the $2,000,000 of bonds indorsed for the Greenville & Columbia Railroad is, because
the State, having heretofore held a mortgage upon that
road, has released it, and the parties now owning the road
have put a first mortgage upon it, and the road is in a bad
condition, and could not be sold for enough to pay both
147 
THiE PROSTRATE STATE.
amounts.  In short, the State will never realize one cent
out of that road; she has guaranteed the bonds, and she
will have so pay them.
Q estion. In your judgment, the other mortgage, together with the cost of construction, will exhaust the road
before the State will be reached?
Answer. I have no doubt of that. As to the Laurensburg branch, the State is a guarantor for some $375,000
or $400,000 of its bonds, with back interest now for eight
or ten years; that road is already in the bankrupt court;
has been decreed bankrupt by the Federal court, and has
long since passed into the hands of a receiver.
Question. How  about the $4,000,000 of the bonds of
the Blue Ridge Railroad?
Answer. First, the Spartanburg road, in this connection: that is a bankrupt corporation, without being in
bankruptcy, and utterly unable to pay its debt, and also
with a large floating debt. The State can never be reached
there, for the State has no lien on that road, or on the
Laureusburg road.  As to the Blue Ridge road, as I have
already said, only twenty-nine miles of that road have
been constructed.  It will require $4,000,000 or $5,000,000, in addition to the $4,000,000 guaranteed by the
State, to build that road, and, until it is built, of course it
can pay nothing. In other words, the bonds of the State
were issued to take the place of original stock, and, through
such a country as that, of course that stock would in any
event all be sacrificed; and, if built with bonds instead of
stock, they would be sacrificed. The State having given
up its lien and allowed another mortgage to be put upon
the road, if they go on with it they will be compelled to
mortgage the road for as much as it would pay if sold.
Qutestion. In fact, you regard that as an absolute debt
of the State?
148 
AMOUNT OF THE DEBT.
Answer. I regard the guaranteed bonds of that road, of
the Greenville & Columbia road, of the Spartanburg
road, and of the Laurensburg road, as so much debt of
the State, as much so as any of the bonds issued by her.
Question. And none of them are embraced in this statement of the debt of the State?
Answer. Not one dollar of them.  The State is guarantor for several other railroads which I have not enumerated, because I consider that they are able to pay, and will
pay the debt themselves.
Question. These other liabilities in the aggregate
amount to how much?
An8wer. About $3,500,000 or $4,000,000.
Question. The State has to run the risk of any conatingencies that may arise to depreciate the value of the property of those corporations; and, though you think she will
be secure, it is not certain?
Answer. I regard those corporations as perfectly solvent and able to pay. I do not think the State is in any
danger of being compelled to pay either the interest or
the principal of those bonds.
Question. Can you form any thing like an estimate of
what is the real amount that the State is now liable for?
Answer. By adding these figures together, in my opinion you can tell very quickly what is the debt of South
Carolina, every dollar of which she will be compelled to
pay.  [Making a calculation.]  It is about $17,450,000.
149 
CHAPTER XIX.
On the Frauds practised in the Expenditure of $700,000, appro.
priated by the Legislature to buy Lands for the Freedmen.
AFTER Governor Scott's election in 1868, the
subject of buying lands and dividing them up
into small quantities, and distributing them
among the blacks, was brought up for consideration. The purpose was humane and praisewortlly. In pursuance of it, a legislative appropriation was made in Marclh, 1869, of $200,000, and
ill March, 1870, another of $500,000, making
$700,000 in all.
The parties concerned in the application of
the money, began at once to rob the State, and
rob the freedmen of the advantages proposed by
the appropriation. They bought land, worthless
for the object in view, and, by collusion with the
sellers, paid for it at a low price, and charged it
to the State at a high one, thus swindling the
State out of its appropriation, and the negroes
ou,t of the lands.  The details of the transaction
can be gathered from the extracts which follow.
Mr. Cardozo, the former Secretary of State, 
MR. CARDOZO'S STATEMENT.
and present State Treasurer, in his last annual
report, speaks thus of- the land-conmission department:
In accordance with an act of the General Assembly,
approved the 15th of February, 1872, abolishing the office
of Land Commissioner, and devolving the duties of said
office upon the Secretary of State, the Hon. H. E. Hiayne,
on thie 1st of March following, delivered to me the records
of the Land Commissioner's office, and I immediately assumed the duties of the same.
Mr. Hayne, during the short period of his occupancy of
the office, though embarrassed by the want of funds, did
much toward arranging the records of the office, bringing
to the notice of your honorable body what his predecessors seemed to have made studied efforts to conceal-the
disposition of the moneys appropriated for the purchase
of land for the landless. But I found that much remained
to be done, for, as yet, the persons for whose benefit the
lands had been purchased had derived little or no benefit
from them. Reports had reached me from reliable sources
that many tracts of land were purchased at prices far
above their actual value, and many who desired to purchase were unable -and unwilling to pay two and three
times the value of the land, notwithstanding the terms of
sale were easy.
In order to acquaint myself with the true status of the
case, the quality of the land, and the character of those
who desired to purchase, I engaged the services of Mr. J.
E. Green, sergeant-at-arms of the Senate, to visit each
tract owned by the State, in person, and report to me the
result of his investigations.  Through  tihe indefatigable
energy of this gentleman, many hundreds of families have
been provided with homes, and the Land Commission has
151 
TIlE PROSTRATE STATE.
been redeemed, in some measure at least, from the once
truthful imputation of being an utter failure.
I was made a member of the Advisory Board when the
law was passed in March, 1869. I most heartily sympathized with the object of the law, viz., to secure homes
for the poor. I endeavored to discharge my duty faithfully as a member, but, on account of the conduct of the
first Land Commissioner, C. P. Leslie, I resigned from the
board in October, 1869, and would not cooperate with the
board again until March 1, 1870, when Hon. R. C. De
Large was appointed commissioner.  It seemed almost impossible, however, for the beneficent enterprise which your
honorable body originated to recover from the injuries
which Mr. Leslie and his associates had inflicted upon it. I
trust, however, it may still be the means of doing much good.
The  accompanying table, from  Mr. Cardozo's
report, exhibits the details of the lands-purchased,
and discloses also an instance of discrepancy in the
accounts, which is not an uncommon feature of
South Carolina financial transactions. (See p. 153.)
It will be seen, by reference to the report of H. H.
Kimpton, financial agent of the State (see Reports and
Resolutions, l871-'72, page 522), that he has paid, out of
the Land Commission fund, upon drafts, etc., drawn on him
by the State Treasurer, $712,71.19. It will also be seen,
by reference to the reports of the Treasurer, that hle has
paid, on account of the Land Commission, $90,058.25, making a total expenditure, for the purposes of the Land Cormmission, of $802,137.44.
The total amount expended in the purchase of lands,
as shown by the deeds on file in this office, is $577,517,
leaving a difference of $224,6.20.44, which, so far as the
records of this office show, is totally unaccounted for.
152 
THE LAND FRAUDS.
COUNTIES.      Total No. of Acres.   Total Cost.
Abbevil le............... 2,742          $27,420 00
Anderson.................. 645             2,945 00
Barnwell...................842             3,310 00
Beaufort...............   3,3752-          14,685 25
Charleston.............. 25,501 o 106,962 50
Chester................... 1,251          10,373 00
Chesterfield...............6,918          44,488 00
Clarendon.................. 615            1,375 00
Colleton................ 12,894- 69,276 00
Darlington................ 1,497          11,603 75
Edgefield.................2,778           18,823 00
Fairfield................. 4,124          23,344 00
Georgetown.............. 6,023            21,085 00
Greenville................1,776           14,115 00
KIershaw.............. 6,360              29,510 00
Lancaster................ 1,204            8,032 00
Lexington.................3,273           13,550 00
Marion................... 6,661           25,480 00
Marlboro................... 800           10,000 00
Newberry................. 1,874           14,055 00
Oconee................... 2,010           11,660 00
Orangeburg............... 1,7231           5,000 00
Pickens................   1,502             5,256 50
Richland...............  9,398             61,081 00
Spartanburg............... 1,972          12,567 00
Sumter................... 454              2,000 00
Williamsburg..............  2,138          3,000 00
York.................... 2,362            16,520 00
Totals.............. 112,4046s      $577,517 60
According to my construction of the law, the whole
appropriation of $700,000 should have been expended in
the purchase of lands; and all expenses incurred for surveying, settling, etc., should have been paid out of the
civil contingent fund of the State; and h-ence, whatever
may have been the object for which the said sum of $224,620.44 was used, other than the purchase of land, it has
153 
THiE PROSTRATE STATE.
not been expended in accordance with the law of She
Land Coinmission.
These lands were examined by an agency of
the State Department, and the following are extracts from the reports:
BEAUFORT.
The Land Commission owns three tracts of land in this
county. The first, the Rice Hiope Tract, is very poor, the
most of it being worn-out rice-fields. It is not yet settled.
This land was bought at a most exorbitant price.
CEARLESTON.
The Land Commission owns over seventy-five thousand
acres of land in this county, the most of it far remnote fri'omI
railway or water communication. It was with the gTeatest difficulty and at a large expense, that my agent was
enabled to visit these lands and find out their quality, value,
and adaptability for the purposes for which they have been
purchased.
The Indian Grove Tract is situated in St. John's Berkley,
and is divided into twenty-eight lots. A large portion of
this land, known as the House Tract, is utterly worthless.
The Wadboo Barony is poor, but little better than the former, five lots of which have been sold and settled.
The Cattle Bluff Tract was purchased from John Tuten,
is situated on the Ashley River, in St. Andrew's Parish,
and is divided into fourteen lots, thirteen of which have
been settled. This land is also poor, and scarce of timber.
The Anendaw Tract (another of the Schley purchases)
joins Wythewood on the north, and contains 12,800 acres.
The preliminary survey of this tract hlas been made, and
1,000 acres divided into lots for settlement.  About 2,000
154 
CARDOZO'S REPORT (CONTINUED).
acres more are capable of cultivation; the balance is an
interminable swamp, and utterly worthless.
CHESTERFIELD.
COLUMBIA, S. C., Sep)ternber 14, 1872.
XTon. F. L. CARDOZO, Secretary of State.
SIR: This is the report of the land of the State in Chesterfield County.   It is thirty-three miles northeast  of
Cheraw. It is one vast sand-bed from one end to the
other, and, if sold at one dollar per acre, no set of people
under heaven could raise enough to pay for it.
J. E. GREEN,  Agent.
This tract consists of 6,918 acres, and cost $44,418.
COLLETON.
Of a tract of 3,200 acres in the county of Colleton, it
is said: "This land could not have been sold, on time, for
fifty cents an acre.  It was conveyed to the Land Commissioner for $19,500."
The Gilbert Plantation, purchased from L. D. Cummings, is situated six miles from Boss's Station on the South
Carolina Railroad. The land is exceedingly poor; of fiftythree lots, but nine have been settled. It abounds in
swamps, bays, and ponds, and is better for fishing than
farming purposes.
The Four-Hole Tract, purchased from W. B. Brown, is
very poor, overflowed, and worthless; not settled.
The McIntyre Tract, purchased from George F. McIntyre, is very poor; not settled.
PICKENS.
There are six tracts of land in this county, purchased
by the State.  They commence about three miles from
155 
THiE PROSTRATE STATE.
Pickens Court-House and run along Six Mile Creek.  Tlhese
lands are exceedingly poor, and no purchasers can be found
at one dollar per acre. 1,502 acres, cost $5,256.50.
IARION.
The State purchased two tracts of land in Marion
County. The Britton Neck Tract, purchased from J. H.
Jenks, is situated forty miles from the Court-House, between the forks of the Pedee River. This tract is absolutely worthless, and will doubtless remain so until the river
is drained by the ocean.
Of course, there were instances in which the
commissioners were forced into proper purchases
by the friends of the freedmen.
Of these we print two sample cases.  One of
these shows that, even where the land was good,
there was a leak elsewhere:
EDGEFIELD.
The State purchased six tracts of land in this county.
The quality of the land is excellent. The six tracts are
divided into sixty-four lots, which are sold and settled.
The State will realize from the sales of these lands fully as
much as was paid for them. The people have paid their
interest promptly. Mr. John Woolley, agent under Leslie,
has received a large amount of money from these settlers,
but has failed to turn it over to me, though repeatedly requested to do so.
CHARLESTON COUNTY.
The Rushland Plantation, sold to the State by C. T.
Chase, is situated on John's Island. It is divided into
forty-three lots, all of which have been settled. A more
156 
JUDGE CARPENTER'S TESTIMONY.
thrifty and industrious set of farmers cannot be found in
the State.  Several have settled in full for their lands, and
have their deeds for the same. Great credit is due to Miss
M. A. Sharp, a resident of the island, for the interest she
takes in these settlers, and, by her good advice and counsel,
many worthy people have secured homesteads for themselves and families.
Below is the testimony of Judge Carpenter
on this subject, taken by the committee of Congress:
Question. You say that $700,000 was appropriated by
the Legislature for the purchase of lands for the landless
and homes for the homeless. To what extent has that
$700,000 been expended, and how has it been applied?
Ans8wer. Well, sir, I could not give a definite answer to
that question. I do not know how much of the money
was ever used for buying lands; a great deal of it certainly
has not been so used.
Questions. What is your best information in regard to
that matter?
Answer. Judging by all that has been told me by the
persons in the different counties, and from my knowledge
of the workings of the LandComrmission, I do not suppose
that the land that has been purchased by the State for the
$700,000 could be sold in the market to-day for more than
one-seventh of that amount, if it could be sold for that.
The Schley purchase, which was a large one, amounted to
$122,000; I think the tract of land consisted of about 30,000 acres, lying up the Ashley River, almost an entire, unbroken swamp, utterly worthless except for the timber that
there is upon it; and, by any means that we have of cutting the timber a,nd getting it out of the swamp, it is worth
157 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
less for that purpose.  There is a great deal of valuable
timber upon it, if it could be got out, but, of course, without labor and capital, it cannot be got out. For the purpose for which it was purchased, it is utterly worthless.
The land was offered in the North for months for $15,000,
without finding a purchaser. There is not a county in the
State where the Land Commission was not more or less
swindled. At one time I had a statement of each county,
and the precincts where the land was situated; the univers.al practice was for the local agent of the Land Commission
to buy land at one price and put it into the Land Commission at another. The Rev. Mr. Donaldson, a State
Senator from Chesterfield County, purchased a tract of land
there; the excess of the amount for which he sold it over
the amount for which he purchased it must have been between $20,000 and $30,000; I saw the tract of land and
passed over it; it was worth very little.
Question. It was charged to the State for that much
more than was paid for it?
Answer. Yes, sir.  Another State Senator, Mr. Lunney,
purchased a tract of land in Darlington County, and charged
the State as much again as he gave. Indeed, I believe he
took the money, and made no title to the State at that.
During the latter part, the operations of the commission
had got down to about this: When a man wanted to sell
any land to the commission, he would charge three prices
for it; one price he got himself, one price was taken by the
go-between,and another price was taken by the Land Coinmission for themselves.  That, I believe, is the way the
thing wound up; I do not think it was as bad as that at
first.
Question. It kept getting worse and worse as they
learned how?
Answer. Yes, sir; or, as the fund grew less, they grew
158 
TESTIMONY (CONTINUED).
mnore hungry. In other words, if you had a piece of land
that was worth $5,000, and you wanted to sell it to the
Land Commission, and I was the agent of the commission,
the arrangement would be for you to charge $15,000 for it,
of which you would take $5,000, I would take $5,000, and
the other $5,000 would go to the commissioners.
Question. You think the land would not realize oneseventh of the amount appropriated by the Legislature for
that purpose?
Answer. I think more money was expended in the purchase of the land than $100,000; for I think that in a great
many instances it was a matter of personal favoritism to
give large prices for lands, and that they did so. But I do
not suppose that out of the $700,000 one hundred men in
South Carolina have got any land, and are living on it and
cultivating it to-day. Most of all the land is in the hands
of the State; most of the lands are unfit for cultivation;
either old worn-out lands, or else swampy new lands. It
has been a fruitful source of speculation and peculation, no
doubt about that; I do not think anybody doubts it; I
have never heard it denied by anybody; it was admitted on
all hands last summer, by Governor Scott's partisans and
friends, as well as by my friends, that there had been a
great deal of corruption and peculation in connection with
the expenditure of that fund.
sIr. Siebels, when  asked to tell some of the
corrupt practices of the officials in South Carolina, said:
For instance, there is the appropriation for the land
commission; $T700,000 was appropriated for buying lands
for the landless. It was intended that that money should
be expended in the purchase of land that was for sale
159 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
throughout the State; that the land was to be bought and
paid for by the State authorities, and afterward sold in
small quantities to the freedmen who had no land, on long
credit. There was a land commissioner appointed, a Mr.
C. P. Leslie, a man from New York. It was his duty to
appoint sub-commissioners or agents in the several counties of the State, who were to purchase lands. All those
purchases were to be submitted to an advisory board, of
which Governor Scott was the chairman, and AttorneyGeneral Chamberlain the legal adviser of the board, and
of which the Secretary of State and the Treasurer of the
State were to be members; the advisory board was to
consist of five members.   There never have been any
books at all kept; there is no evidence of the amount of
land that has been purchased; you cannot tell what has
been bought, and you cannot tell what has been sold. We
only know, after investigating and trying to find out what
has been done, that land has been purchased as low as fifty
cents an acre, and booked to the State at eight and ten
dollars an acre; and in one single instance a tract of land
near Charleston, which you will find on the map, called
Hell-hole Swamp, was purchased at seventy-five cents an
acre, or the whole tract for $26,100, and booked to the
State at $120,000. One of the advisory board drew the
money from the financial agent of the State in New York,
a Mr. H. 1. Kimpton.
Question. Which member of the advisory board?
Anstoer. It was said that the Treasurer of the State, Mr.
Parker, did so. The facts were not denied; the accusation
was openly made in our reform canvass; I made the accusation myself, in a public speech, and it was not denied.
By Mr. STEVENSON:
Qtestioa. Parker being the Treasurer of the State, he
had power to draw the money?
160 
MR. SUBER'S TESTIMONY.
Answer. Yes, sir.
By Mr. VAN TRUMP:
Question. What was the name of the Senator with
whom you had that colloquy?
Answer. Beverly Nash.
By Mr. BEcx:
Question. I want to ask you about two or three special
cases. According to your information, how much of that
$700,000 has been invested in good faith for homes for the
negroes?
Answer. I was very diligent during the canvass in
making inquiry, for we sought to use that as an electioneering document against them. I was very diligent in inquiring about the purchase of lands in all the counties, and
I never heard of a single instance in which a bona-ftcide
trade had been made.
Question. Your information is, that that $700,000 was
substantially stolen by the officials?
Answer. Yes, sir; I do not believe that $100,000 of it
was properly invested.
Air. Suber, a leading lawyer of Newberry,
Southl Carolina, wNhenil asked on these subjects,
said:
Question. State your general information in regard to
the mnanagemient of the school fuind, the land fund, railroad corporations, etc.
Answer. The Land Commission there has been the source
of great complaint; it was created by an act of the Legislature with a view to buy lands for the landless and homes
for the homeless, and $500,000 was first appropriated by
the Legislature for that purpose. A man by the name of
C. P. Leslie was appointed land commissioner for the State,
161 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
and charged with the duty of purchasing lands and reselling them to indigent persons, in small lots of twenty-five,
forty, and fifty acres. Afterward $200,000 or $250,000
more was appropriated-$200,000, I think. All of that
money has been expended, and very few people have been
benefited by it. The general belief is, that a great deal
of corruption has been practised in that commission; for
instance, it is charged that bodies of land have been bought
by the commissioner at low figures, and charged to the
State at high figures in his accounts. There is one transaction in which it is said that a body of land lying in
Charleston District, entirely worthless, was bought for
$30,000, and charged up against the State for $120,000
That has been charged publicly, and it has not been denied by the parties who are said to have been guilty of it.
General BuLtler's attention was called to the
frauds practised by the Land  Commission, and
the following resulted (pages 1207, 1208):
Question. You spoke of the fact that the owners were
considerably to blame also. Is it not a fact that the fraud
on the State, of the character to which you have referred,
buying at five dollars an acre and inserting in the deed a
consideration of ten dollars, could not have been consummated without the cooperation of the venders?
Answer. Certainly, of course not.
Question. Were not the venders, in a very large degree,
the native South Carolinians here who owned the land?
Answer. Oh, yes, sir.
Question. So that, in reality, if the fraud exists to the
extent that is charged, they have at least given their countenance to it, whether they have profited by it or not?
Answer. Clearly so; and I think they are to blame for
162 
TiHE LAND COMMISSION.
it; but it was human nature almost. I do not think a
strictly honest man would do it. If I had 10,000 acres of
land to sell, and a Senator would come to me and say, " I
will buy that if you will give me $500," I would buy him
up as I would buy a mule.
On this subject, the legislative committee
present tile subjoined remarks.  On page 14 they
say:
THE  LAND  COMIMISSIOx.-This  gigantic folly, about
which there has been more said, and less known, than any
other branch of the State government, and of which the
Legislature have often been challenged in open session to
find out any thing about, as well as denied a report concerning its operations-this offspring of an ordinance of
the Constitutional Convention, passed to furnish a certain
individual with a visible occupation, and a more visible
manipulation of the public funds-has, without doubt,
been one of the most expensive experiments, productive
of greater distress and dissatisfaction, that has been legalizedl or patronized by the State.
In no instance has the spirit of the ordinance alluded
to, or the act authorizing the creation of the Land Commission, been carried out, as will be seen by.the following
extracts fromn both of these instruments; but, on the other
hand, the office, the administration of its power, the purchase of lands, the payment for the same, the sale of landcommission bonds, have all been made to subserve a certain organized result, viz., the primary benefit of members
of the advisory board, and the land commissioners and
their subservient allies.
In the examination of the books of the State Treasurer,
or the vouchers to the charges made against the Land Com
163 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
mission, but little trace of the operations, and a small proportion of the amount expended by the commission, could
be found. There seemed to be a studied silence on the
whole subject; and, had the investigation ended with the
Treasurer's or Controller's office, no more information
would have been gained than was already given, viz., that
less than $90,000 had been expended by the Land Commission at the close of the fiscal year ending October 31, 1870.
Sust3picions were aroused that a full record of all its transactions had not been made; and the subsequent examination of the books of the financial agent justified these
suspicions; for in them it was found that, from the appointment of the first land commissioner to the 31st of October,
1870, according to the financial agent's charges, there had
been paid out by him, in cash, for the Land Commission,
$562,063.40, which, added to the amount,... swells the
aggregate expended for and on account of the said Land
Commission, as far as known, to $746,724.07.
The major part of the business transactions of the Land
Commission was now performed by the financial agent in
the city of New York, the accounts kept by him, as by a
transcript of the same will be seen. To use the language
of the financial agent, in answer to the question from the
committee-" What has been the process by which the
Land Commission transactions have been conducted between you as financial ag(ent of the State of South-Carolina and the State Treasurer? "-he says, "Instead of
drawing on me, the Treasurer directed me to credit the
State as having received the money from him, and charge
the Land Commission with the same."
This plan, it will be apparent, obviated the necessity
of charges upon the Treasurer's or even the land commissioner's books.   As an illustration, in the case of the
"Hell-hole Swamp " purchase, Parker gives drafts on H.
164 
JUDGE POLAND SPEAKS.
H. Kilmpton, in favor of Z. B. Oakes, for $120,752.  These
are Kimipton's vouchers.
Parker pays the money at Columbia, the draft on Kimnpton is the notice of the payment of money, the State is
credited on Kimpton's books with the same amount in
cash, and the Land Commission at the same time debited
with the amount, and the whole transaction is safe, for details are not indulged in by the financial agent in his reports; nor do the advisory or financial board trouble the
general assembly or the public with their suggestions or
experience.
The statement will bear reiterating, that the Land Commiission and its operations have been an " outrageous and
enormous swindle," and the only satisfaction or comfort
that the people of the State can take is, that, having expended more than the entire amount authorized by law,
"the purposes of the land commission" have been gained,
and no further expenditures  can be made.   That legal
means to bring these fraudulent transactions to light, and
the corrupt complicators to judgment, should be instituted and furthered there can be no division of sentiment
up)on; and the sooner the work is begun the less liable
will the guilty be to cheat the demands of justice.
And Judge Poland speaks as follows:
A commission was organized to purchase lands for the
purpose of furnishing homes, to the destitute laborers, at
cheap rates and upon terms of easy payment, and $700,000
was appropriated for that purpose.  The policy of the
measure, in the then impoverished condition of the State,
had its advocates and opponents in both Houses. The intention, if honestly carried out, was commendable; but the
administration of the trust discloses, as already intimated
by the extracts given, a greedy avidity by the owners of
165 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
land to sell; a willingness to insert in their deeds a price
higher than that they obtained-the difference to be used
as a corruption fund between themselves and the officersthus defrauding the State; making purchases of land unfit
for the purpose, at exorbitant prices, and defeating, in a
great degree, the benevolent purposes of the act.
IIon. J. E. Stevenson, in the following extract
from his report, seems impressed with the extraordinary value of these lands. Where his information comes from does not appear.   We must
give him the benefit, hlowever, of thie acknowledgment that the report of the Secretary of State had
not then appeared. Mr. Stevenson says:
An act was passed March 27,1869, and amended March
1, 1870, to establish a Land Commission, to purchase lands
to be sold as homesteads.  Under these acts bonds were
issued, and are outstanding, amounting to $700,000, and
$547,329.85 have been expended, and 104,078 acres of land
have been purchased, at an average cost of $5.25 per acre,
which was probably below the intrinsic value, though
above the market price at which the same or better lands
might have been obtained when these were purchased.
No complaint has reached us of the policy of these acts,
and, if properly applied, it would have been beneficial to
the people and profitable to the State. But it is charged,
and the documents before us and evidence before the joint
committee tend to establish, that abuses were practised.
Lands were purchased not adapted to the purpose, fictitious prices charged the State, while owners received less,
and the difference was divided between the venders and
the officers or intermediates. The names of public officers
not connected with the commission, and of members of the
166 
SCOTT'S MESSAGE.
Legislature, appear in some sales. These practices have
deprived the people of benefits and the State of a source
of profit and prosperity, and brought the system into disrepute.  The Governor recommends that the commission be
abolished.
Governor  Scott, speaking on this subject, in
his special message of January 9, 1872, says (see
pages 20 and 21):
Many of the purchases of land have been severely crIiticised, and, grave charges of irregularities in the administration of the office of land commnissioner being current, I applied in the month of May,; 1870, to an eminent lawyer of
this city, Colonel J. I). Pope, to initiate legal proceedings for
the purpose of bringing the alleged fraudulent transactions
of the land commissioner under review in thie courts. Colonel Pope stated, in a written opinion, which he furnished
me, that, after a thorough investigation of the law and the
facts in the premises, he was satisfied that great irregularities had been practised to the injury of the State, but that
the necessary legal proofs of the malfeasance alleged could
be furnished only by those who sold the lands, and by
others interested in effecting such sales, and who profited
by them, and they were not likely to appear as witnesses
and criminate themselves.
167 
CHAPTER XX.
The Frauds practised upon the State in the Cases of the Columbia
& Greenville and the Blue Ridge Railroads.
THE State owned a quantity of the stock of
the Columbia & Greenville road, and had a
mortgage on the road, for advances in guarantees
and certificates of indebtedness, to the amount
of $2000,000.  This road fell into the hands of
John Patterson, now Senator from South Carolina; Parker, the former State Treasurer, and
Neagle, the former Controller of the State, and
their confederates, by contrivances and methods
described in the following statements. The upshot of which is, that the State lost its stock and
lost its mortgage, which loss was the gain of those
who became owners of the road. The value of the
stock in the road owned by the State was estimated by the Controller, ill 1869, at $433,000.
WVe have elsewhere referred to the Blue Ridge
road as a corporation created to build a railroad
into Kentucky and Tennessee across the southern
end of the Blue Ridge, where it passes into South
Carolina. 
BLUE RIDGE SCRIP.
The enterprise has failed, and the company is
bankrupt. The corporation has, however, been
made useful as an engine to defraud the State.
The company, in September, 1868, obtained a
legislative guarantee of its bonds to the amount
of $4,000,000, on certain conditions designed to
protect the interests of the State.
By another legislative enactment in Alarch,
18T71, these conditions were all swept away, and
the State left without any security, but with its
full liability for the $4,000,000.
The statements and testimony which follow
relate to these transactions.
But the case would be incomplete without the
further statement that an issue of Blue Ridge
Railroad scrip to the amount of $1,800,000 has
since been authorized by the Legislature, and
made available to the operators by declaring it
receivable for taxes. This ingenious arrangement
has afforded great opportunities for bargain and
sale with the tax-collectors all over the State, who
could buy the scrip of the operators at much less
than its face, and turn it over to the Treasury at
its par value.
The whole operation was clear profit on both
sides, but at the expense of the immediate taxpayers, who must now be reassessed for the whole
issue used in this way.
The scheme was found so profitable and so easi
8
169 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
ly worked, that it is now alleged that two more
fraudulent issues, each of the same amount, have
been made, and thrown into circulation.
The Supreme Court, at its last session (February, 1873), declared the original issue fraudulent, but this decision cannot reach the operators in the fraud, who have of course taken care
to unload themselves long ago. Neither will it
relieve the tax-payers, whose money has been invested in the scrip.
In this way some fresh millions, as yet an
unknown quantity, have been added to the debt,
and added in such a way that the tax-payers cannot escape their speedy payment.
Part of the money gained by this operation
has been since used to corrupt the Legislature in
other cases, and to advance the personal and pecuniary objects of the authors of the fraud.  The
men who have done this have neither hanged
themselves nor run away, but are to-day among
the chief manipulators of South Carolina affairs,
and the recipients of the honors of the State.
Judge Carpenter testifies before the congressional committee in this language:
The Legislature elected in that canvass then took their
seats, and they proceeded at once to follow out the line of
their predecessors. Bribery was the general order of the
day to secure the passage of any thing. They had some
very large jobs inrelation to railroads that were carried out
170 
JUDGE CARPENTER'S TESTIMONY.
very much to the disgust of the people who have to-pay the
taxes, and who have any regard for public morality. The
first Legislature passed an act guaranteeing $4,000,000 of
bonds for the Blue Ridge Railroad, and reserving a statutory lien upon the road and its franchises, and its running
stock, and every thing of the sort, for the payment of the
$4,000,000. The same Legislature passed an act guaranteeing about $2,000,000 of bonds for the Greenville & Columbia Railroad, a road already running. Last winter the
Legislature passed an act relieving both of these roads from
their liability, so far as a mortgage was concerned, canceling the mortgage in favor of the State, and authorizing
them to put a first-mortgage bond upon their road.
Question. Thus releasing the lien of the State?
An.swer. Thus releasing the lien of the State entirely
upon the two roads. Those two liens amount to about
$6,000,000. The Blue Ridge Railroad had only about
twenty-nine or thirty miles of road constructed. The estimates of the engineers are that it will require, in addition
to the $4,000,000 guaranteed by the State, some $4,000,000
or $5,000,000 more to complete it. It runs through a
mountainous country from Anderson, South Carolina, to
Knoxville, Tennessee.   That, of course, is assuming the
debt by the State, for it is impossible that the road can pay
it and finish the road.  The State for two years has been
paying the interest on the bonds of the road guaranteed by
her, is doing so now, and has been doing so since the war,
and I think she did so before. That has been the general
character of the legislation of South Carolina.
Question. Who are the owners of the Greenville & Columbia Railroad, and of the Blue Ridge road, especially the
first; in what way did they become the owners of it, and
whlat legislation, if any, has been passed to aid them since
they became the owners of the road?
171 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
Answer. In the case of the Blue Ridge road, to answer
the shortest question first, the majority of the stock is
owned by the State of South Carolina and the city of
Charleston, and has been represented in the board of directors, in voting for officers, by Governor Scott and Mayor
Pillsbury, the one Governor of the State, and the other
Mayor of Charleston. There is very little stock outside of
that, and they have managed it between them. I have
stated the legislation in regard to the Blue Ridge road;
first, the credit of the State-the indorsement of the State
on its bonds to the amount of $4,000,000-and then the relinquishment of the mortgage held by the State. This is
substantially all the legislation in regard to the Blue Ridge
road, except one piece of legislation last winter, that I may
more properly speak of in connection with the Greenville
& Columbia road. The Greenville road is owned now
by Colonel John Patterson, formerly of Pennsylvania;
Governor Scott, whose stock, I think, is held by Joseph
Crews, or his brother-in-law, Waterman, amounting, I think,
and as I understand, to about three shares; by Parker, the
State Treasurer; Neagle, the Controller of the State;
and Cardozo, Secretary of State. I think Mr. Tomlinson
has an interest in it. He was formerly Auditor of the
State.  I will not be sure of that, but he had an interest in
it, and I think he has now. Timothy Hurley and others
are also stockholders. I do not know all the present stockholders.
Question. Who is Timothy Hurley?
Answer. Hie is a member of the Legislature of South
Carolina.  Formerly he was a very active lobby member
of the Legislature. The road was acquired by purchasing
up in the country, through a portion of the directors of the
Greenville & Columbia road, a certain amount of its stock,
all that could be purchased in the up-country. That stock
172 
TESTIMONY (CONTINUED).
was transferred, in the first place, to three persons from
Pennsylvania-Colonel McClure, Colonel Patterson, and a
Mr. Taylor-under some arrangement with Governor Orr,
who was one of the Board of Directors, Mr. Hammett, who
was the president of the road, and Mr. Reed, who was the
attorney of the road. A very considerable amount of the
stock of the road was purchased in the country, and delivered to these parties. Then the parties divided the stock
of the road into shares of $20,000 each; twelve shares,
equal to $240,000. Then these different parties came in
and subscribed one share, or half a share, or a quarter of a
share, as they pleased, and took an interest in it in that
way.  That, however, did not give them  a controlling
amount ofthe stock ofthe road. They couldnot buyit inthe
market. It had got noised about, and there was a great deal
of excitement about it. Then a bill was introduced in the
Legislature in the interest of this ring, and it was passed.
The bill authorized the Governor, the Controller, the
Treasurer, the Attorney-General, the chairman of the
Committee on Finance in the Senate, and the chairman
of the Committee on Ways and Means in the House, to sell
any of the public stocks or property held by the State of
South Carolina, at public or private sale, with advertisemment or without it, as they might deem proper.  The object of the act was to enable them to sell to themselves the
stock held by the State in the Greenville & Columbia road,
probably some $300,000 or 8400,000. Thiat would give
them a majority of the stock, and enable them to control
the road. The bill was passed through the Legislature, as
was asserted at the time, and never denied that I know of,
by the usual means of procuring the passage of bills through
that body.  The stock was sold to some persons in New
York, some friends of Mr. Kimpton.  I do not know who
they were. It was sold at $2.75 a share, the shares being
173 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
$50 each, when these same parties hadcl been offering and
paying for all the stock that could be brought to them from
Xewberry, as Colonel Fair informed me, $4 a share. They
sold this stock to those men in'New York, and it was
afterward transferred to the different parties who held
these several shares, and it is now owned by them.
Question. You spoke of aid being granted to that road
by the Legislature. Was that done after they became the
owners of the road?
Answer. No, sir; it was done before they became the
owners of it. It was after that act that the mortgage was
released.
Question. The mortgage of the State was released?
Answer. Yes, sir; after they became the owners of the
road. That was this last winter, more than a year subsequent to the time when they acquired control of the stock
of the road. Of course, other people own stock in the road
who have never parted with it.
Question. That aid, granted by the State amounted to
$2,000,000?
Answer. About 82,000,000.  I believe the ControllerGeneral states in his last report that under that act bonds
to the amount of $1,500,000 have been issued. That is
the only means I have of knowing how much has been
issued; but the statute authorizes about $2,000,000.
Question. What consideration did the State receive from
the Governor and his ring, as you call it, for the release ot
their first lien of $2,000,000?
Answer. The State received no consideration at all;
what consideration the members of the Legislature received
I am not able to say.
Question. The release operated to the extent of a grant
or gift of $2,000,000 to the ring who controlled the road?
Asweri. That is my opinion of it.
174 
STATE CO,MMITTEE'S REPORT.
The report of the Republican State committee of investigation comments on this subject,
and their report is quoted by the minority of the
congressional conmmnittee.  They say:
And in order to remove every obstacle to an immediate
or entire use of these bonds which was restricted by conditions, under the act authorizing their issue, the fathers
and abettors of the act of March, 1871, introduced section
6, which says: "The following clause in section 2 of the
act of September 15, 1868, to authorize additional aid to
the Blue Ridge Railroad Company in South Carolina, viz.:
'And fuirther provided, that the said bonds, or any part
thereof, shall not be used, unless upon the express condition that upon application to the Congress of the United
States, or to private capitalists, the amount of $3,000,000
in currency, or so much of that sum as may be necessary,
shall be furnished in exchange or upon the security of said
bonds,' " is hereby repealed.
This repealing clause removes all hinderances to the
use or negotiation of these bonds; and when it is borne
in mind that so many of the State officers, financial board,
and financial agent, were so much interested in "the promotion of the consolidation of the Greenville & Columbia
and Blue Ridge Railroad Companies," and have the control
and direction of these bonds, it is not too much to anticipate their advent upon "the market " when the emergency
arises; hence they should have a permanent place among
contingent if not actual liabilities.
And as the State has, by this same act, surrendered its
prior lien upon the property, assets, effects, rights, and
franchises of the Greenville & Columbia and Blue Ridge
Railroad Companies, to be consolidated, and generously,
before the marriage ceremony, advanced the bond-holders,
17 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
with their respective mortgage rights, to a first consideration in the settlement of claims, it will be expected that
the State will submit to a further use of its "faith and
funds," in order that the bond-holders may not suffer by
their investments. And further, as the 21,698 shares of
the State in the Greenville & Columbia Railroad Company,
which, in 1869, according to the Controller-General's
report, were valued at $433,960, have been sold, as per report of Hon. J. I. Rainey, secretary of "the sinking-fund
commission," for $59,669.50, at the rate of $2.75 per share,
in order to put the management of the road into the
hands of the twelve associate consolidators and repealers,
there can be no contingency or fortuitous circumstance
which will prevent the putting upon "the market" of
every bond issued and indorsed, authorized by statutory
provisions.
The report of the Tax-payers' Convention, held
in Columbia, refers to those transactions in the
following terms:
But the Greenville & Columbia Railroad Company also
has a history. Certain men, well known to this convention, acting as agents for a ring of speculators, had by deception and misrepresentation purchased the stock held by
private individuals at a nominal price. The Governor, by
authority of the Legislature, then sold the State stock in
this company to the same "ring," in which high State
officials are the chief jewels. I have authority for saying
that money to make these purchases was raised by hypothecating State bonds. So, then, the corporation known
as the Greenville & Columbia Railroad Company passed
into the hands of private individuals who never paid out
of their own pockets one cent for the stock, and became,
176 
TAX-PAYERS' REPORT.
what it yet is, a disreputable ring of State officials, and
bankrupt stock-jobbers.
And again:
That, upon a careful examination of the act of the Legislature, we can reach but one conclusion: That, for some
reasons unknown to your committee, the Legislature has,
without consideration, relinquished to private individuals
the State's lien upon the Blue Ridge Railroad, and the entire properties of the other companies (styled companies
in the act), the Greenville & Columbia Railroad Company.
Such dealings by trustees with the property or funds of
their cestui.ue trust, can only be the result of fraud, are
unauthorized by law, and are void.
Major llHarley, of that convention, speaks as
follow s:
It is known, Mr. President, that, during the session of
the last Legislature, measures were introduced into both
Houses, looking to the benefit of the Greenville & Columbia Railroad ring (for it had ceased to be a company), and
at the same time to the destruction of the Blue Ridge
Railroad Company. I desire, in this connection, to refer
more particularly to Mr. Whittemore's bill to withdraw
the indorsement of the State from the bonds of the Blue
Ridge Railroad Company to the amount of $4,000,000.
The passage of this bill would have been a death-blow to
this company. It may be, and it probably is, the truth
that, to save itself, this company associated with that mass
of corruption, the Greenville & Columbia Railroad ring,
the instigator and principal agent in the stupendous fraud
whiich resulted from the association. Am I to be told that
under such circumstances the managers and officers of the
Blue Ridge Company were justified in resorting to decep
177 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
tion, bribery, and fraud?  This may furnish a reason; but
it supplies no excuse.
To accomplish this end, to consummate this scheme of
fraud and villainy, they concoct the extraordinary act of
Assembly which has provoked this investigation.  Gentlemen of the convention, some of you have been familiar
with legislation in South Carolina for many years; I see
around me some who legislated for the commonwealth in
connection with Cheves, Hayne, McDuffie, Calhoun, and a
host of others, whose names are household words about
our desolated fireplaces of to-day; I say to you, read this
act, and I venture to say, with your long experience, you
will pronounce it the most remarkable piece of legislation
ever brought to your attention. The two corporations go
before the Legislature, and represent the great advantage
and the many blessings which will result to the State, as
the consequence of their consolidation; and they ask the
Legislature, in view of the many public advantages to result therefrom, to grant them certain favors. What they
wished I have already stated. Just allow me to add here,
that their modest request involved the subordination, by
the State, of her first lien upon their respective roads, for
amounts exceeding $6,000,000 to the junior claims of private persons.  This act is prepared, passed, and ratified.
All that these corporations ask for is given; not, however,
upon the consolidation being actually effected; but, to use
the words of the act, "in view"  of the proposed consolidation, these great favors are granted by legislative enactment.
Mr. President, one prominent feature in this transaction is the part which native Carolinians have played in
it; and it is to this feature that I ask to be allowed to address myself in closing. I say, sir, and I say it in sorrow,
that some of our own household, men whom  the State in
178 
MAJOR HARLEY'S REMARKS.
the past has delighted to honor, but whose honors have
been withered by the atmosphere of corruption that they
breathe, are involved in this swindle. I cannot conceive
how these men, thoroughly acquainted as they are with
the negro character, and with the circumstances which, up
to a recent date, surrounded the negroes then in slaveryknowing, as they well know, that in mature manhood the
negro is mentally a child, and that, morally, he never
passes the stature of infancy, could reconcile it to themselves to approach them, when by force of law they were
suddenly raised to political power, and, by appealing to
their cupidity and avarice, make them their instruments to
effect the robbery of their impoverished white brethren.
The highwayman spares the idiot, the pirate has mercy on
the fool; but these, our own people, use idiot and fool alike
to consummate their schemes of spoliation and plunder.
A Legislature, composed chiefly of our former slaves, has
been bribed by these men-to do what? To give them
the privilege, by law, of plundering the property-holders
of the State, now almost bankrupt, by reason of the burden of taxation under which they labor.
179 
CHAPTER XXI.
On the Frauds and Violence practised in the Elections.
ONE of the great discouragements to regular
and sustained efforts on the part of the whites to
resist negro sway in South Carolina, has been the
frauds practised on the ballot-box. These have
been so great and so audacious, that voting became a farce. The party in the majority counted
in whomever they wanted elected, without any
reference to the votes cast.
The following testimony discloses a worse state
of things in South Carolina on this subject, than
was ever before seen since voting was invented.
It shows that men who were elected by a majority of thousands, were deliberately counted
out, and their adversaries declared elected by
overwhelming majorities. The result has been,
that at the last election no voting was done in
numerous districts except by the dominant party
in the State.
Referring to this subject, Judge Poland, in his
report, says: 
THE CONGRESSIONAL REPORT.
The election law of the State is one which could not be
better calculated to produce frauds by affording the facilities to commit and conceal them, and, tempted by these
facilities, we cannot doubt that in many instances they
were committed.
Mr. Van Trump, of the congressional committee, reports as follows:
On the 16th day of March, 1869, there was passed, and
approved by the Executive, an act entitled "An act to
organize and govern the militia of the State of South Carolina." It is in form a general law, and, of course, to be
valid, must apply to all the citizens of the Commonwealth
of the prescribed age, white as well as black. But the design of the law itself will be best exhibited by the improper
use made of it during the summer of the next year after its
passage, which, as contemplated in its enactment, was made
:to control the election of that year, the Governor himself
being a candidate for reelection. The following is the
fourteenth section of the law:
SEc. 14. That the organized militia of this State shall
be known as the National Guard of the State of South
Carolina, and shall consist of such divisions, brigades, regiments, and battalions, and, in addition thereto, such batteries of artillery, and troops and squadrons of cavalry, as the
commnander-in-chief may  deem expedient;  and nothing
herein contained shall be so construed as to interfere with
the power of the commander-in-chief, in case of war or insurrection, or of imminent danger thereof, to order drafts
of the militia, and to form new regiments, battalions, brigades, or divisions, as he may deem just and proper: Proqvided, That there shall be no military organizations or for mations for the purpose of arming, drilling, exercising the
181 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
manual of. arms, or military mancuvres, not authorized by
this act and by the commander-in-chief; and any neglect
or violations of the provisions of this section shall, upon
conviction, be punished with imprisonment at hard labor
in the State penitentiary for a term not less than one year,
nor more than three years, at the discretion of a com
petent court.
The statute was permitted to lie dormant until the
spring of 1870.  At that period, the corruptions of the
State government, in all its various departments, had so
culminated and become known to the people, that an attempt was made to unite the elements of opposition in what
is known as the "reform" movement.  It was thought,
though, as events proved, mistakenly, that if a mixed ticket
of Conservatives and dissatisfied Republicans were put in
the field, there might be some chance.  Such a ticket was
made up at an early day, and the organization assumed the
name of the "reform party," with Judge Carpenter, a Republican, at its head, as a candidate against Scott for Governor. Scott sent through the State to enroll and organize
the negro population, and fourteen full regiments were thus
organized in the-several counties of the State.
In regard to the election itself the testimony
is s'ibjoined.
MIr. Corbin, the United States District Attorney for South Carolina, a Republican, testifies as
follows:
Question. Wliat is the machinery of election there?
Answe?er. At the last election it was a very miserable
machinery.  Do you wish me to state the details of the
-law?
Question. Yes, sir.
.182 
TIIE CONGRESSIONAL REPORT (CONTINUED). 183
Ais?wer. The last Legislature but one passed a general
law.:
Mn. POLA_ID. Is there not a shorter way to get at the
law than by asking the witness to state his recollection of
it?
MP.. BLAIR. I would like to hear from the witness how
it worked.
THE WITNESS. The machinery was briefly this: three
commissioners were appointed  for each county by the
Governor; those three commissioners appointed managers
in the several precincts in the county, and were to furnish
those managers with ballot-boxes locked and sealed, except an aperture through which to deposit the votes in the
box. The managers were to receive the votes on the day
of election, keep a poll-list, and return the poll-list and the
box to the commissioners of election, who were to count
the votes; they were to do that within three days after
the election; they had three days within which to return
the boxes and poll-lists.
By Mr. BLAIR:
Qutestion. To the commissioners?
Answer. Yes, sir; and then the commissioners were required by law, within ten days, to canvass the vote and
make return to the State board of canvassers; and the
State board was to canvass the result and declare it.
Qutestion. General Scott, the Governor, who had the
appointment of the commissioners, was himself a candidate for reflection as Governor, was he not?
Answer. Certainly.
Question. Therefore he had it in his power to appoint
every person who had any thing in the State to do with
receiving and counting the votes?
Answer. All but the managers; he appointed the commrnssioners only. 
THiE PROSTRATE STATE.
Question. Well, the commissioners appointed the managers?
Answer. Certainly.
Question. Therefore lie had the control, directly or indirectly, of every person in the State who had any thing
to do with counting the votes by which he was to be either
re5lected or defeated? I understand that to be the state
of the case?
Answer. Yes, sir; there is no doubt about it. But the
great difficulty under that election law and the working
of it arose simply from the dishonesty of the managers or
commissioners; that is, where the frauds were committed,
if they were committed at all.
Question. Did not the law itself contemplate that very
thing; does it not give the opportunity?
Answer. Of course, every one in office has the opportunity to commit rascalities and frauds. If every officer
had been honest the election returns would have been as
correct under that law as under any law. Still, you can
see what the opportunities were; the managers had the
boxes at their precincts, remote from the county-seat, and,
having received the votes, they sealed up their boxes as
they were required.  Some of them had to carry them
thirty and forty and fifty miles to the county-seat, to deliver them to the commissioners. If they chose to knock
out the bottom and put in other votes, or to change those
that were in there, they had the opportunity to do it.
And, after the boxes were received by the commissioners,
they had the same opportunity to commit frauds, because
the boxes were in their custody for ten days. Some very
glaring frauds were doubtless committed in some of the
lower counties. At the very last term of the court I convicted three parties in Beaufort County for abstracting ballots that had been cast by the voters at the election and
184 
THE CONGRESSIONAL REPORT (CONTINUED). 185
substituting others for them, and also for erasing the names
of some of the candidates upon the ballots cast and substituting others therefor. After a very deliberate trial,
that extended over three weeks, the first trial resulted in a
mistrial; but on the second trial we convicted them on
all the counts against them.
]1r. F. W.  Siebels, of Columbia, when  before
the committee, testified as follows:
Question. Was there not a large amount of fraud practised in your State at the last election?
Answer. Yes, sir; some voting a dozen times, perhaps;
women and children voted.  Women gave votes for their
husbands or their brothers, who they said were sick.  After we elected a few members, they voted them right square
out of the Legislature. We elected some of our candidates by a hundred-and-odd majority; yet the Legislature
declared their seats vacant.  They did every thing according to their own account.  These are facts which are on
record. I think many of these facts were developed in
the Bowen and De Large controversy that has been going
on in Charleston   Yes, sir; boxes were opened and votes
were changed. They committed fraud in a dozen different ways. I know a gentleman whose uncle voted for
him, and they found the ticket on which his uncle had
written his name, in his own handwriting, and they had
afterward scratched it out. I am certain that, if we had
had any election at all, we would have elected the members of the Reform party, or the Democratic party, in fourteen counties, perhaps in more. We thought we stood a
good chance in sixteen counties out of the thirty-one.
Judge  Carpenter  testified  to the following
effect: 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
Question. I believe you have stated that the negroes
who desired to vote for you, or for the Reform ticket, were
maltreated, threatened, and persecuted by their colored
brethren. Was that general throughout the State?
Answer. I think it was.  I was told so in every county
that I was in, by more than one colored man. As I said
before, I heard men proclaim that the order had been issued to shoot any colored man who voted for the Reform
ticket.  I do not think there was any such order, but that
was the statement.
Question. Was it believed by those people?
Answer. Undoubtedly it was believed by the colored
people.
Question. And acted upon?
Answer. And acted upon.
Question. Were the election managers so divided as to
give you any chance in'the counting of votes, or were they
generally friends of Governor Scott?
Answer. They were all friends of Governor Scott, without any exception, so far as I know; that is, the commissioners of election; and the managers were his friends
without any exception, except where nobody was found
that was able to read and write of their party, and then
they had to resort to the reformers for managers. Once
in a while there would be a precinct where no colored
man could read and write, and then they had to take a
reformer to take down the names on the poll-list.
Question. As a matter of necessity?
Answer. Yes, sir. I do not think there was any reformer in the State appointed, as commissioner or mnanager,
other than from necessity.
Question. If in these elections the frauds were as great as
you supposed they were, what was the obstacle under the
laws of the State to exposing them and making contest?
186 
THE CONGRESSIONAL REPORT (CONTINUED). 187
Answer. There was no penalty affixed to the law of the
State for any offense connected with the election. The
only way to prosecute them was in the United States
courts, under the Federal statutes.
Question. Under the statute known as the enforcement
bill?
Angswer. Yes, sir; that was the statute under which
those men in Beaufort County were prosecuted; but then
it was so difficult to obtain the proof. The act of the Legislature did not require the managers to keep the ballots
at all, and they did not keep them. They certified that A
B had so many votes for Congress, that C D had so many,
that E F had so many votes for Governor, and so on, and
then they destroyed the ballots. They did not leave any
thing by which to trace them. The way those persons were
convicted in Beaufort was by bringing men from the precincts to swear how they had voted. To illustrate the
whole thing, in one precinct where the commissioners returned but six votes as having been given for a certain
party, forty-one men were brought forward who swore they
voted for that party; and so it was in other precincts.
That showed that the commissioner had taken ballots from
the boxes, and put others in their stead. The act, if you
can call it one-I call it a device-was so framed as to enable them to destroy any trace of their guilt in the matter.
The only thing that could be relied upon was the general
statement of the certificate of the commissioners, who, as I
said a while ago, were themselves almost universally candidates for office.
Question. The party in power could have been maintained under that law, no matter what majority the people might cast against it?
Answer. If there had been forty thousand majority,
there would not have been any difference; it would have 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
been just the same, for the law was  framned for that purpose.
Question. You spoke of the district of Mr. Wallace as
an illustration.  What facts have you to satisfy you that
in his district the count was false?
Answer. I canvassed that district very thoroughly; I
canvassed it almost by precincts. In the first place it has
a large preponderance of white votes.
Question. Where does the district lay?
Answer. It is Chester, York, and Laurens, and in that
region of the State. I talked with a great number of persons, intelligent men of both parties; I obtained information from both sides as to the particular counties. I talked
with colored men throughout the entire district, and I
made up my mind that the majority for General McKissick in that district would be about six or seven thousand.
It was owing to two facts that I came to this conclusion.
First, the character of the population, and second, the
very active and thorough canvass of the whole district,
without the exception of a county. I never saw any one
during the campaign, black or white, that had any idea
that Wallace was going to be elected, and I do not think
that any one was more astonished than his own partisans
when they found that he had three or four thousand mnajority in that district. IIe had just been beaten by about
five thousand majority by Simpson. Simpson was disqualified, and Wallace was therefore given the seat. He
ran this race with McKissick, who is a very popular stumper, and a popular man in that region of country; besides,
there is a great deal of dissatisfaction toward Wallace
among his own people.  But it was a part of the general
scheme to keep power in the hands of the officials of the
State, no matter how the people voted.
188 
THE CONGRESSIONAL REPORT (CONTINUED). 189
Question. HIow much of joint debate had you in the
canvass?
Answecr. Very little; no debate at all with Governor
Scott. I think I had about four general discussions, at
different places, with candidates of the other side for
State offices and candidates for Congress; but none with
Governor Scott, for he did not make his appearance on the
stump at all. In the fourth congressional district, represented in your House by Mr. Wallace, the commissioners
returns make him elected by some three or foul- thousand
majority, I think. Now, judging from a very active and
thorough canvass of the whole country, and from information of men of all parties generally, I do not think he
could have been beaten there by less than six or seven
thousand votes. In the county of Chesterfield, where the
white population largely predominates, where the Reform
Senator was elected by a handsome majority, the commissioners returned to the Lower House two members as
elected who  were friends of Governor  Scott, and the
House seated them. I think it was universal with the
Republican papers in the State. that they denounced it as
an outrage; these men never could and never did have a
majority.  The Charleston _Republican and the Republican
paper of Columbia both very severely denounced the action of the House, particularly the Charleston Republican.
I do not pretend to state what the opinion of the people
was as to the real result of the canvass; but it was the
general opinion throughout the State, after the election,
that the ballot-boxes had been tampered with throughout
the State, and the will of the people entirely disregarded.
In Laurens, where Crews was a commissioner and also a
candidate for the Legislature at the same time the other
two commissioners were, one, a man bythename of Owens,
and a Senator, a very weak man, perfectly under the do 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
minion of Crews, and the other a negro, also under his
dominion: they returned a thousand majority in that
county for Scott and Wallace. I am as certain that I received a thousand majority in that county as I am of my
existence.
Question. How was the vote against you returned?
Answer. It was a round thousand against everybody on
our ticket, and a thousand in favor of everybody on the
other ticket. I do not think they ever counted the ballots.
190 
CHAPTER XXII.
The Frauds in relation to the Redemption of the Notes of the
Bank of South Carolina.
THE State of South Carolina was bound to redeem, by an obligation antedating the war, certain outstanding circulating notes of the State
Bank.
The amount of these notes was not known.
A suit had been commenced after the war, and
holders of these bills had been, by an order of
court, notified to present them. At the end of a
year and a half of the widest publicity of the
order, the holders had been able to find and
present to the court something less than half a
million of the notes. This amount was and is
supposed to have been the sumn total of the then
existing issue.
At this point the Legislature took up the case
and voted to issue State bonds to redeem them.
The first step was to appoint a legislative committee to count them.  To the astonishment of
everybody that conammittee reported to the House
that they had attended to their duty, and found 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
$1,258,550 in notes, as the result of their endeavors.
By means of the customary persuasions, the
Legislature were induced to overlook the fact
that less than $500,000 could be found previously
to be extant, after eighteen mnonths' vigorous
search; and passed an act authorizing an emission of bonds to the amount of the $1,258,550.
The next step in the transaction was by the
Executive Department, which had printed and issued bonds for this specific purpose, expressed on
their face, for the sum of $1,590,000.
By this one simple operation, the State thus
appears to have been defrauded of a round million.
The case is explained in detail in the following testimony of Judge Carpenter:
Question. Hlave you any information as to who were the
principal owners of the notes of the Bank of the State of
South Carolina to the amount of twelve hundred and odd
thousand dollars, which is referred to in the statement of
the Controller-General? Do you know how that affair was
managed, and how those notes were obtained and paid off?
- Answer. I know something about them. I think that
perhaps the largest holder of the notes was Edwin Parsonis,
of New York; perhaps the next largest holder was a man by
the name of Marsh, from Cincinnati, Ohio; and Governor
Scott was a very considerable holder of these bills. I think
most of the gentlemen composing the State government
were interested in them, as well as several members of the
Legislature.  I think Governor Scott had probably sor0e
192 
JUDGE CARPENTER'S TESTIMONY.
$60,000 or $70,000; I am not-certain as to the amount. He
told me at one time that he had $50,000, and I know that
he afterward purchased more.  I think that most of those
who are called the ring there had an interest in them; if
they did not have the bills themselves, they had an interest
in the bonds after the bills were funded.
Question. How was that funding accomplished?
Answer. Well, by an  act of the Legislature.  I do
not think they got much for passing that; it was in the
early days, and they were green about such things. I have
heard some parties say that they got along very well with
that. Those fellows had not learned their business well
when that bill was passed.  I think it was got through
without a great deal of money, very little money indeed;
but I think a great many more bonds were issued than
there were bills filed.  I think the speculation there was
in that way principally. It was asserted-well, there was
a suit by Dabney, Morgan & Co., plaintiffs, against the
Bank of the State, in the name of a bill against an insolvent debtor.  That suit'was referred to a master in
equity, to take proof as to the outstanding bills of the
bank, and the holders of those bills were required to come
in and present them and prove them. In that case there
was proved something less than $500,000 of the bills. The
case had been in court a year and a half or more; had been
a very prominent case; was widely known  and there was
something less than half a million of the bills there proved.
Those bills were withdrawn from that court by leave of the
court.  To the astonishment of everybody who had been
familiar with the affairs of the State, when the bonds came
to be issued for the funding of those bills, they footed up
between $1,200,000 and $1,300,000, instead of what everybody supposed would be the case, between  $600,000 and
$700,000. One of the committee to count the bills was
9
198 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
Mr. Joseph Crews, of Laurens; another of the committee
was a Mr. Rainey, now a member of your House; and the
third was the Treasurer of the State, I believe, Mr. Parker. After these bonds lihad been issued, shortly afterward,
it seems that Mr. Crews deposited with Scott, Williams &
Co., $30,000 of these bills.  Nobody knew any thing about
it until last year, when Scott, Williams & Co. sued Crews
for some money he owed them.  Then this state of facts
was disclosed on the trial: Scott, Williams & Co.'s bank
had been robbed before the institution of the suit against
Crews, and among other property taken by the robbers
was this $30,000 of the bills of the Bank of the State of
South Carolina.  It turned out that shortly after the bills
were counted and supposed to have been destroyed, Crews
had deposited this amount as collateral security for money
that hle had borrowed of that bank.  In the suit he insisted
that he ought not to pay the amount he had borrowed, because the bank had allowed the collateral security to be
stolen.
Question. This $30,000 was supposed to be part of the
bills understood to have been destroyed by the committee
of which Crews was a member?
Answer.  It was  supposed they were  all destroyed.
Where he got this $30,000, when it was supposed that all
these bills had been counted and destroyed, of course I do
not know. Hle was one of the committee that counted
them.
The case is handled thus gently by HIon. J. E.
Stevenson:
There were outstanding, when  the new government
came in, notes of the Bank of South Carolina, which the
State was bound to redeem, $1,258,550, with interest; and
an act was passed September 15, 1868, for the redemption
194 
THE LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE'S REPORT. 195
of these notes, under which bonds were issued, $1,590,000,
of which, $1,259,000 are outstanding, and $331,000 are in
the Treasury.   Members of both parties voted for this
measure, which appeared to be one of justice to public
creditors; but it is now alleged, and there is evidence before the joint committee to sustain the charge, that notes
had been purchased at nominal rates, and were held in
large quantities by State officers, members of the Legislature, and influential citizens of both parties, and that the
act enabled them to make a speculation on the credit of
the State.
It has also been charged that the notes redeemed were
not destroyed, but the documents before us refute this
charge.
The  legislative commnittee, in  their  report,
say:
Since the foregoing was written it is found that, of the
bonds to redeem bills of the Bank of the State of South
Carolina, $1,250,000 were sent by the American Bank Note
Company to the State Treasurer, and $340,000 to the Governor. In whose hands, then, the balance of the said
bonds, viz., $331,450, may be found is not yet known to
the committee.
How many bills of the Bank of the State had been presented to the Treasurer up to January 1, 1869, or bonds issued
for their payment, is not known, but $500,000 of the bonds
classed as "Loan to redeem bills of the Bank of the State
of South Carolina," had been printed; and befobre the adjournment of the session of the General Assembly of 1868
and 1869, $1,075,000 more of the same bonds had been printed. After the adjournment of the Genelal Assembly in
April, 1869, $15,000 more were printed, making in thle aggregate $1,590,000. 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
The excess printed over the amount issued, in whomsoever hands they may be found, should be at once canceled
or destroyed, as the legal time for the presentation and conversion of the bills of the Bank of the State has already
passed, and no further issue has been authorized.
196 
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Census Frauds.
TUaE minority of the joint committee of Congress report two of the minor transactions of the
Legislature, by way of showing their liberality
and ingenuity in disposing of the State's money.
The first was an appropriation to take a cellsus of the State in 1869, just previous to the
regular national census of 1870, for which they
paid $75,000; and the second was by the same
body, to pay the Speaker $1,000, by way of gratuity, to reimburse his losses on a horse-race.
We give the account of both transactions in
the language of the committee. It is given as
an illustration of the free-and-easy way of doing
things that prevails in that quarter.
They say:
The report of the "joint special financial investigating
committee," made at the last session of the Legislature,
shows the following disbursements for taking a State
census, in 1869-'70, only a few months before the Federal
census: 
THlE PROSTRATE STATE.
June, 1869....................................    $120
July, 1869...................................... 4,231
August, 1869....................................' 8,851
September, 1869................................ 17,180
October, 1869..................................  19,746
November, 1869................................ 12,165
December, 1869................................   5,189
January, 1870.................................. 6,170
February, 1870.................................   1,472
March, 1870....................................    56
April, 1870..................................... 148
May, 1870...................................... 196
Total.................................... $75,524
The State census-takers had scarcely retired from the
field of their operations before the advent of the Federal
officers occurred to do the same thing. The first act of the
State Legislature for taking the census was passed and approved March 19, 1869, which required the work to be
completed by the 1st day of November, 1869. On the
18th of December, 1869, an amendatory act was passed,
extending the time for the completion of the work to
December 31, 1869. The Federal census bill was introduced into Congress on the 6th of December, 1869, and
finally passed both Houses on the 4th day of May, 1870,
and the work commenced on the 1st day of June, 1870;
so that it will be observed that legislation to do the same
thing was pending at the same time in Congress and the
Legislature of South Carolina.
The taking of the Federal census, under the late law
of Congress passed for that purpose, was a much more
laborious and expensive one, for the reason that it required
a detailed statement of the statistics, social, commercial,
and agricultural, of each State of the Union, to be carefully made up as a part of the census record.
198 
THE SPEAKER'S BET.
The following communication, furnished us by the Census Bureau, exhibits the difference in the amount expended
on the two enumerations:
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,   }
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 5, 1872.
SIR: The total expense of taking the census in the State of
South Carolina, as appears on the books of this office, amounted
to $43,203.13. This, of course, does not include the expense of
compilation, tabulation, etc., in the census-office-only the actual
cost of taking and making return of the census.
Very respectfully, yours, etc.,
HENRY STONE,
Acting Chief Clerck.
lion. P. VAx  TRUmP,
iouse of Bepresentatives.
The journals of the last session of the Legislature show
that a joint resolution was adopted to adjourn on the 7thday of Marce last. The proceedings, for several weeks
prior to that time, show great activity and industry in the
passage of private bills, to get through by the day fixed for
adjournment. In the House, particularly, this was so,
holding frequent night sessions as late as the hour of midnight.  The journal of the House shows that on the 4th
day of March, only three days prior to the final adjournment, the House took a recess from ten o'clock in the morning to seven in the evening.
One F. I. Moses, Jr., from Brooklyn, New  York, was
the Speaker of the House. There was a negro member of
the House by the name of Whipper, who was the proprietor
of fast horses. Moses and Whipper had made up a matchrace for $1,000 a side. The race was fixed to come off on
the said 4th day of March; and the explanation of the
recess on that day is, that the House adjourned to attend
this horse-race. The race was run; and the Speaker lost
the bet of $1,000. Three days afterward, on the day of
199 
THIE PROSTRATE STATE.
final adjournment, and the very last thing done in the
House, as shown by the journal, was a motion made by
Whipper, "that a gratuity of $1,000 be voted to tho
Speaker of this House, for the dignity and ability with
which he has presided over its deliberations."  The motion
was passed by a large majority.
200 
CHAPTER XXIV.
Frauds in furnishing State-House.
TiHE following testimony relates to a piece
of extravagance of expenditure in fitting up the
legislative halls, and of frauds in connection with
it, in which an implicated member defies exposure, and threatens to enlarge penitentiary accommodations for the members, in the event of
his own discomfiture.
The testimony was  taken  before the  joint
committee of Congress, and is appended:
Question. Was there, or not, an order at the last session
of the Legislature, for the furnishing of the liTouse of Reresentatives, and a bill produced there by the chairman of
the committee appointed to do it?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. State who he was, what was the amount of
the bill produced, and what was done in regard to it.
Answer. At the session before the last there was a resolution passed the House, that a committee be appointed to
purchase furniture for the House of Representatives; the
Senate had been finished and furnished before. This committee was appointed, and Mr. John B. Dennis was the
chairman of it. When the Legislature met the last timue 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
the new furniture was all in; the House was furnished
most superbly. A great deal was said in the papers about
the extravagance; a great deal of talk was made about the
carpets being so fine and about the magnificent chandeliers
and spittoons, and one thing and another, for an impoverished people. Even several Republicans said to me that it
provoked them to see so much extravagance, when we
were so little able to afford it. It was a theme of conversation with everybody. When the bill came in it amounted
to $95,000.  That created a terrible excitement in the
House.  We had only twenty-three members-in the House,
I believe; some of them moved that the bill be printed,
but they would not print that bill. One of the members
said it would cost $2,000 to print the bill, and that they
had better not print it.  They staved it off until the very
last day of the session.  When they had spent $200,000 or
$300,000 in the way of expenditures, they brought in another bill for two hundred and odd thousand dollars on the
very last day of the session, out of which this $95,000 was
to be paid. But the Governor, who had taken a very decided stand in regard to the reckless expenditure of the
public money, swore that that bill never should be paid.
He vetoed the bill, and the Senate sustained the veto.
Since then some gentlemen, interested to see what on
earth this bill could be for, how the things could cost so
much, because there were the goods to show for themselves, ferreted the matter out. And, although the highest
prices were paid for this furniture, three or four or five
times its value-for instance, $750 was paid for one mirror
in the Speaker's room; each official has a separate room
for himself, most gorgeously fitted up, with toilet sets and
all the paraphernalia of a dwelling-house; clocks, at $480
apiece; chandeliers, at $650   Question. How many spittoons were there?
202 
AN ENORMIOUS BILL.
Answcer. There were two hundred fine porcelain spit
toons, at eight dollars apiece.
Question. There were only one hundred and twentyfour members?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. What were the bills really found to foot up?
Answcer. The bills were obtained and sent to Columbia,
and we had them published in all the papers. - They foot
up to fifty and some odd thousand dollars; I have the bills
myself.
By Mr. VAN Tn.uPM
Question.' So that reduced the bill about $40,000 below
what it was first put at by the committee?
Answer. They never reduced it at all.
By Mr. BEcK: 
Question. The actual bill was $50,000 and odd, and the
bill as presented to the Legislature and passed was $95,000?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Was there not an investigating committee
appointed by the House of Representatives to look into
alleged election frauds in the case of Reid and somebody.?
Answer. Yes,' sir.
Question. Reid and who?
Answer. Reid and iloge.
Question. Of which Joe Crews was chairman?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. What was the amount spent in that investigation?
Answer. The bill brought in there for expenditures was
an enormous bill; I do not remember the amount exactly.
Question. Do you remember about the amount?  Was
it not $68,000?
Answer. It seems to me it was between $60,000 and
$70,000.
203 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
Question. I want to call your attention to the Dunbar fee.
Answer. At any rate, this was in the bill: $7,500 was
charged in the bill by Crews, who made out the expenses,
for lawyers' fees and services.
Question. Paid to whom?
Answer. To James Dunbar, of the firm of Chamberlain, Dunbar, and somebody else. Of course it was talked
of, and Dunbar very promptly came forward and said that
he had never received a dollar, that he had never rendered
any services, had never been consulted, and had never received a dollar. The other members of the committee say
they never consulted -any lawyers at all, because Wright,
one of the associate justices of the State now, and Elliott,
were both on the committee. They say they, discussed the
propriety of calling in legal advice, but, as both of them
were lawyers, they did not call-in any at all. This bill was
a gross fabrication; they never consulted any lawyer at
all, and Dunbar says they never paid him a dollar. The
Attorney-General was instructed to take steps to indict
Crews for embezzling the public money.  Crews went before the-committee investigating this matter, and told them
at the very offstart that he did not intend to answer any
question that would criminate' himself.  As. soon. as they
commenced questioning him about this money, and if he
paid it to Dunbar, he said, " I decline to answer that question," and so on throughout. And when-he was threatened
afterward with being indicted, he defied them and said that
they did not dare to do it; that they would first have to
make an appropriation to enlarge the penitentiary, for he
would put the half of them in there.
BYy Mr. VAN TRUMP:
Question. What did he mean-half of the Legislature?
Answer. The whole concern connected with the government, I suppose.
204 
CREWS'S BILL.
By Mr. BEcK:
Question. And the prosecution was dropped?
Antswer. Yes, sir; and the money has been drawn and
paid.
By Mr. STEVENSON:
Question. What money do you mean?
tnswer. The bill he reported for expenses has been
paid.
Question. Paid before or after the investigation?
Answer. Paid before the investigation.  The money
was done paid and gone; he rendered in his account and
drew the money, and it was too late to get it back.
By the CAiiMAN:
Question. Did he file any receipt for that money?
Answer. No, sir; he could not produce any receipt at
all.
Question. Did he get the money without a receipt?
How did he get the money?
Answer. I do not know; they have so many ways of
doing this thing that I cannot tell about this.
By Mr. BECK:
Question. Crews reported this $68,000, or whatever it
was, as expenses, and the House ordered it to be paid?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Mr. Van Trump's report adds this item to the
transaction
The excess of disbursement in the item for fitting up
portions of the State-Hiouse will be better understood
when we state the fact, as proved by the testimony, that,
under the pretense of fitting up comimittee-rooms, the private lodging-rooms at the private boarding-houses of the
members, in many instances, were furnished with Wilton
and Brussels carpets, mirrors, sofas, etc.
205 
CHAPTER XXV.
On General Legislative Corruption.
THE committee who have examined and the
witnesses who have testified in regard to the corruption and fraud in South Carolina legislation,
all agree in their testimony. Nobody undertakes
to deny its existence, and there is little or no differelnce of opinion as to its degree.   It is complete and universal.   It  overspreads the State
like an inundation.
WVe  extract first from  the report of  Judge
Poland, of the joint congressional committee:
....
The general venality of the Legislature is complained
of, in connection with fraudulent bills for furnishing the
State-House, with the passage of bills for aid to railroads,
for charters of incorporation, and, indeed, the charge is so
general as almost to prevent specification. Like all such
indiscriminate charges, it is doubtless exaggerated; but
that there was too much foundation for it in truth the
whole tenor of the testimony leaves no room to doubt.
The political party in power must, of course, bear the
responsibility of its partisan administration, but the individual dishonesty of the members of either.party in
public trust, or of private citizens who bribe them, should 
JUDGE CARPENTER AGAIN.
be treated not as a party fault, so as to give it even the
slightest party support, but as a gross departure from duty,
ineriting the scorn of all honest men, and teaching the
man guilty of it that he forfeits the respect of all parties;
that no party distinction or services can atone for the lack
of personal integrity.
Judge Carpenter, on this subject, sa-s:
Besides this increase of the indebtedness of theState,
the general conduct of the Legislature was very unsatisfactory to the people. It was very: well understood at Columbia, and throughout South Carolina, that no bill, having
any other purpose than a mere public law, could be passed
in that Legislature without bribery.-  The Governor, in his
testimony before the joint committee on the Blue Ridge
Railroad, has expressed it very strongly.  I do not pretend
to indorse that statement precisely, but my belief is that
of every other man in South Carolina, of any intelligence,
that no act was passed there, other than of a purely legal
character, that the Legislature was not bribed to pass. I
make that statement not only from general information,
but from the confessions of a large number of parties interested, the lobby members and the members of the Legislature themselves, who never made any secret of it.
By lMr. BrECK to Mr. SUBIR:
Question. Hiow have they managed their railroad transactions; do you know any thing about that?
Answer. The Legislature has been charged with corruption in railroad jobs, too. The railroad on which I
live, the Greenville & Columbia Railroad, was purchased
more than a year ago by a ring, as it is called, in Columbia,
headed by the Governor of the State, and with Parker,
the Treasurer of the State, and others of that party in it.
The stock of that road was purchased at a very low figure;
207 
THE PROSTPRATE STATE.
the stock belonging to the stock-holders along the line of
the road was sold out at a very small figure, and it now
belongs to the ring, and at the last session of the Legislature a bill was introduced to give the State indorsement
to $2,000,000 of the bonds of that road.
Question. After those men had obtained it?
Answer. Yes, sir; after those men obtained it; the
bill was introduced the past year, but it was defeated in
the Senate.  It was believed that they managed to get it
through the House by bribery.
Question. What was the general impression about
bribes being paid to members of the Legislature for all
sorts of jobs; did you ever hear them say any thing on
that subject themselves?
Answer. A colored member from my county told me
on the floor of the House, the second time I was ever in
the House, that he constantly saw bribes offered there to
parties to vote for measures; that they had been offered
to him. He approached me as I entered the bar of the
House, and asked my opinion about some bill that was
pending-what I thought of it. The bill, I think, was
called the sterling loan bill. He said they were agitating
it then, and he was doubtful which way to vote; that he
had voted against it the night before, for the reason that
he saw men offering bribes to members of the Legislature
to vote for it, and he therefore thought that there was
something wrong about it; that bribes were constantly
being offered in the House for various measures.  I have
heard that stated generally; but he is the only member of
the Legislature who ever told me so.
Question. The members of the Legislature were generally believed to be corrupt were they not?
Answer. Yes, sir.
lilr. Aldrich, of Barnwell, said:
208 
THE UNIVERSAL OPINION.
Question. Do you know of any case of corruption
committed by your county officers?
Answer. Well, sir, their administration of the affairs
of the county is very bad, very lamentable. They collected $40,000 or $50,000 fiom the people, yet the roads are
not repaired, the bridges are not built, the public buildings are not sufficient for the accommodation of the people,
and the claims of the county have not been paid.
Question. Is it the general opinion of the people of
your county that the taxes are collected?
An8wer. Yes, sir; all the taxes are collected, but the
money is squandered.
Question. Is the same thing true in regard to State officers?
Answer. Yes, sir, generally charged so; and I know of
some instances of my own knowledge which show that
they are more or less corrupt.
Question. Is that the opinion of the white people generally in reference to the State government?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Is it the universal opinion?
Answer. Yes, sir; I think it is, so far as I have been
through the State. I have canvassed the State twice, and
I have heard that charge made by every man I met.
The Hlon. J. E. Stevenson observes:
It is generally admitted that the Legislature has been
extravagant, and has made unnecessary, and, in some
cases, corrupt appropriations, some of which have been
vetoed by the Governor, and defeated, and others passed
over his veto. And where extraordinary expenses were
necessary for the safety of the State, as to supply arms
and ammunition to suppress violence, advantage has been
taken by individuals to secure exorbitant gains.
209 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
Even the recent investigation by a joint committee of
the Legislature to detect corruption is followed by charges,
sustained by proofs, that members of the committee, and
men connected with it, were more anxious to make illegitimate profits to themselves than to perform their duty.  It
is charged, and in evidence, that there has been corruption
in the Legislature in connection with acts conferring or
extending corporate privileges, and that bribery has prevailed.
The following is from the proceedings of the
Tax-payers' Convention held in 1871.
The members of that convention thus spoke
of the corruption of the government officials:
Indeed, the members of the Senate and the House of
Representatives, as well as the officials, do not hesitate
openly to charge each other with fraud and corruption;
and there is a well-settled tariff for legislative action of
this kind most accurately graduated.
A considerable portion of the last session of the Legislature was consumed in mutual criminations of this kind,
and one of the Senators actually proclaimed his independence of investigations of fraud and corruption, on the
ground that his own frauds would bear investigation quite
as well as those of his accusers, and the challenge was not
accepted. The Governor of the State, in his veto of a
bill for legislative expenses the last session, says: "I re:
gard the money already appropriated during this session,
and the sum included in this bill, amounting in the aggregate to $400,000, as simply enormous for one session.  It
is beyond the comprehension of any one, how the General
Assembly could legitimately expend one-half that amount
of money." And the matter turned out to be a fraud, as
210 
FRAUDS AND BLACKMAIL.
the Governor insinuates. Last winter a committee of both
branches of the Legislature was appointed to investigate
the frauds and blackmailing connected with the Blue Ridge
Railroad legislation of the previous session. The Governor,
the main witness, appeared before this committee, and accused the former Legislature of all sorts of villainy. Alluding to the bill granting aid to the road, the Governor
savs: "When the bill came up a member of the House
came to one of the parties and said,'The report can't go
through until I get $500.'"   And when an injunction
was served on the fiscal officers of the State to prevent the
indorsement of the bonds, the Governor alleges that the
parties procuring the injunction proposed to withdraw the
same if $25,000 would be paid. After many clear and
explicit charges of fraud and corruption, the Governor,
with an honest burst of indignation against this corrupt
body, says: " I know of the fact, or have been told so by
a hundred different persons, that money had been paid to
get a report through at the last session.... I learned
afterward that they privately demanded of the president
of the road $500 apiece, as it was publicly stated by themselves that they did not get enough out of the road when
the bill passed."
211 
CHAPTER XXVI.
The New-York Financia.l Agency.
ONE of the things from which South Carolina
has most suffered, and is now suffering, is the
character of its New-York financial connections.
Its agent is a man unknown to fame, who has
been intrusted with large sums in the bonds of
the State, and of whom everybody concerned comnplains that no satisfactory accounts of his operations in the State securities can be obtained.  A
good deal more than this is charged, and still
mnore suspected, as will be found by what follows.
It should also be added that it is alleged that
his influence was active at the last session of the
Legislature in preventing the execution of the
desire to verify the actual amount of State bonds
on the market, by procuring a registration by the
holders. Judge Carpenter's examination on this
question elicited the following response:
Question. I want you now to tell this committee how
much money was deposited with Kimpton, the financial
agent of the State; for what purpose; how it was drawn;
upon whose orders; what contract was made with him
about it; and who he is.
Answer. After Governor Scott was elected, the Repub 
THE FINANCIAL AGENT.
lican party concluded that they must have a financial
agent in New York, and this man, H. H. Kimpton-whom
nobody, it appears, knows, either in New York or anywhere else, as a financial man-was appointed that agent.
Hle is a young man with no reputation, I hear. Bonds of
the State were put in his hands to the amount of $2,700,000. Hle gave no security, and no contract has ever been
made with him at all. As the State authorities wanted
money for their various purposes, they drew on him and
he advanced the money.
Question. Either by the sale or the hypothecation of
the bonds of the State?
Answer. Altogether by the hypothecation of the bonds,
I think. We paid about 15i per cent. interest for the
money, according to his account, and his commission is to
be added to that.  It appears there has never been any
settlement with him at all.  I looked over his report; he
reports in a line and a half to the Controller-General, simply saying, "I Herewith is my statement," and then he gives
simply the amount received in bonds and the amount drawn
in cash. Hle says nothing about interest, commission, or
any thing else.
The minority of the joint congressional cornmittee express themselves thus. Speaking of the
Legislative examination, they say:
The committee afterward turned their attention to the
financial agency established in -New York, through which
a large amount of the business of the State was transacted,
and they show that there, as in the books of the officials in
South Carolina, the truth was concealed whenever it suited
the purposes of the officials to conceal it.  On pages 245
and 246 of their report, they say:
The committee are compelled to say that the financial
213 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
agent has acknowledged to them" the incorrectness of his
accounts, and admitted that he was directed l)y the financial board not to make real but fictitious entries; so frightfully large were the expenses of the transactions of the
agency, in negotiations of loans, etc., the board thought it
best to keep the true amounts in disguise."
Besides this admission of the agent, the manner in
which his books and accounts have been kept justifies suspicion as to their accuracy.
The committee most unhesitatingly and emphatically
assert that no business man, with honest intentions, who
makes his books the true record of his operations, would
suffer such an incomplete and questionable account to be
kept as the financial agent of South Carolina has kept.
What, however, is our astonishment and indignation
when we are told, on finding specified charges,: that " they
are not correct," that " even detail in payments is no assurance of accuracy?"  And what our humiliation when
we are told " the financial board of the State have recommended the covering up and withholding of the real business transactions of the agency? "-that, because the
credit of the State is so low, the standing of the agency so
poor, the demands per cent. so great, and the charges for
outside financial operations so enormous, to negotiate loans
in behalf of the State it would be unwise to be honest, impolitic to tell the truth, unfinancial to let the books become
a faithful record!
The same legislative committee contitiiue:
The accounts, books, and vouchers of the financial
agent, for the fiscal year ending October, 1871, have not
been examined, as has been already stated, nor was there
time so to do, and perfect the report which is now preseated; nor were the committee allowed to see them.
214 
COMMITTEE'S REPORT (CONTINUED).
While this declaration may be denied by the agent, it is
sufficient to say that, while no direct refusal of books, etc.,
was made, his continued and purposed delays-his own
absence from his office under false assurances of sickness,
and the fidelity of the confidential clerk to his master, exhibited in his frequent declaration, "I cannot let you see
tile books, or accounts, or vouchers, unless Mr. Kimpton
gives me the order so to do "-all these multiplied pretenses and designs were equal, in their results, to a forbidden examination, and prevented investigation.
Although we are now told that his books and papers
are open to the inspection of those who doubt or who are
inclined to verify " the last statement of the management
and condition of the finances of the State," yet, from the
knowledge the committee has gained, they do not hesitate
to say that such an advertisement is like the spider's parlor invitation to the fly, and whoever accepts the invitation will
find himself "caught at last," with promises never to be fulfilled, by one who is an adept at trickery, if nothing more.
The committee desire to impress upon the General Assembly the necessity, by further legislation, of clothing
them with an immediate authority, unquestioned in detail
and prerogative, to examine the books and papers of the
financial agent for the fiscal year ending October, 1871,
that they may be enabled to complete their supplemental
report, which is in an advanced state of preparation, and
necessary to perfect the work assigned them, viz.,'"a
complete and thorough examination of all the accounts of
the State Treasurer, Controller-General, and financial
agent, since their induction into office."
At the Tax-payers' Convention in 18l1, while
the bonds of the State had not yet fallen to less
than 70 to 80 cents on the dollar, a committee
215 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
of that body reported as follows on 3fr. Kimp.
ton's accounts:
The arrangement of having a financial agent in New
York does not make a favorable impression upon the committee.  Copies of the accounts rendered by him for the
fiscal years of 1869 and 1870 are annexed to this report for
reference, marked respectively B and C.
The large sum in money or bonds always in the hands
of the agent is attended with unusual risk in the management of the finances of a State; and the difficulty of keeping the accounts of the agency of the Treasury in constant
and regular accord is great. It will be seen, for example,
by account " B," that, at the end of the year, the total of
the sums charged to the Treasurer by Mr. Kimpton was
$1,007,924.54, while the sums credited to Mr. Kimpton by
the Treasurer amounted to only $623,000; exhibiting a
discrepancy of $384,924.54, or disagreement of $384,924.54. In like manner, account "C"  exhibits a disagreement
of $294,726.92
It is true these accounts were recently brought into
reconcilement, or rather into conformity, with the accounts
of the agency. There is added to both an account of the
subsequent interest by which this was effected.  It will be
seen that among the items brought to the credit of the
account by the subsequent entries, are these, viz.:
Account (B) fiscal year 1869, for expenses, including
interest as explained to the committee........... $64,996 71
Account (C) fiscal year 1870, for expenses, includ   ing interest..................................  94,977 42
Total.................................. $159,974 13
These appear to have been passed to the credit of the
agency without being audited. The committee understood
Mr. Parker, the Treasurer, to say that he had not received
216 
TAX-PAYERS' REPORT.
an account of the several items of expense that go to make
up the two sums of $64,996.71, and of $94,977.42. These
charges, as will hereafter be shown, add enormously to the
interest of the public debt, nor is this the end. The coinmmittee learned from Mr. Kimpton, that his own proper
commission as agent was not included in the above sums.
These appear to have been the quarterly balances due to
Mr. Kimpton, by the Treasury:
October 1, 1869.............................. $515,424 54
January 1, 1870............................. 180,009 54
April 1, 1870................................ 548,347 84
July 1, 1870................................. 573,317 21
October, 1, 1870............................. 880,843 95
Total..............................$2,697,943 08
This sum, divided by the five periods, gives an average
of $539,588.61, as the sum of the advances, and seven and
a half months as the period of time for which they were
made.  The interest and other charges, as shown in another part of this report, was for twelve months  $94,777.42, or $7,914.78 per month. For seven and a half
months it is $59,860.85, or at the rate of 17 per cent. per
annum. And to this is yet to be added the agent's commissions. Mr. Kimpton is under the impression that his
average advance was greater than the sum stated by your
committee. But even if it was $700,000 instead of $539,588.61, the interest (without his commission) would amount
still to the high rate of 131 per cent. per annum.
The loss sustained by the State in this mode of dealing
is obvious, and it is augmented apparently by the fact that
all this risk, expense, and trouble, resulted in the sale of
only $1,000,000 of bonds, and these at the moderate rate
of 70 per centum. The act providing for the payment of
the interest on the public debt in gold had been passed,
and had added very largely to the annual charge.
10
217 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
State of South Carolina, in Account eith
Dr.
1871.
October 1..
r o Balance, as per account received...
Interest account transferred....55 -
Land Corn. account transferred, per
drafts omitted in previous ac     count............................              
1,500 00
$1,528,095 65
1 o Balance.........................           
Gold and coupon account trans     ferred..........................
1872.
January 2..
March   31..
State Investigating Com. account..
Bal. Sinking Fund account trans  ferred as per account rendered..
5,700  60
94,315 26
$1,643,456 86
1872.
March 31.. To Balance..........................
June......  State Treasurer....................
1872.
June 80..
Sept. 30...
To Balance.........................
Interest and Commission account
transferred....................
Expense account transferred.......
$1,743,456 86
123,416 66
~ -  885 75
$1,867,759 27
1872.
Sept. 30..
To Balance...........................   $629,415'26
218
$1,267,075 63
259,520 02
$1,528,095 65
. 15,345 35
I)ec. 31...
$1,643 456 86
. IOO:IDOO.00 
KIMPTON'S REPORT.
H. H. Kimpton, Financial Agent.
Cr.
1871.
Dec. 31...
By Balance.........................
1872.
March 31.. By Balance...........................$1,643,456 86
1872.
June 30.... By Balance.......................... $1,643,456 86
1872.
Sept. 30...
By transfer account sales 4,214- S. C.
Bonds.........................
Balance..........................
On hand, $1,656.o500 S. C. Bonds, which
is including $200,000 S. C.
Bonds account Sinking Fund
account; also  $598,000  Blue
Ridge R. R. Bonds.............
ron. J. L. NEAGGLE, Controller-General:
DEAR. SIR: The above is mly report to date, September 30, 1872.
(Signed)                        H. H. KIMPTON,
Financial Agent State S. C.
By R.
219
$1,528,095 65
$1,238,344 01
629,415 26
$1,867,759 27 
THIE PROSTRATE STATE.
The preceding statement of Mr. Kimpton is
the last of his favors that have seen the light. It
appears in the last annual report of the Controller
(1873). It is remarkable in two particulars: It
shows a recent sale of $4,214,500 of South Carolina bonds for the sum of $1,238,344; and it exhibits charges of $382,936 for interests and commissions on a balance of $1,267,000 —all in the
accounts of a single year.
220 
CHAPTER XXVII.
On Some Causes of Violence and Disorder.
THE following testimony of Judge Carpenter
is of such an instructive character in regard to
several points that have come under review, and
in respect to others not treated, that we  make
room for it:
Question. What effect did that pardoning of criminals
have upon the lawlessness that existed, the taking of the
law by men wrongfully in their own hands?
Answer. I think that that, and the manner in which the
election was conducted, the election law, and the other
matters I have stated-I think these are the sole causes for
men taking the law into their own hands. There was a
great deal of excitement, a great sense of insecurity, and a
great feeling of indignation. Because, in addition to what
I have stated, in all the appointments in every department
of the government, the men were generally not only corrupt but utterly incompetent.  Men were appointed school
commissioners who could neither read nor write, at a salary of a thousand dollars a year for a commissioner in each
county. Salaries were increased everywhere. Public officers were multiplied, and the only business of the officers
seemed to be to prey upon the people. The whole government in all its ramifications seemed to be intent upon no 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
other purpose than self-aggrandizement at the expense of
the population, and I confess that I shared in the belief
that there was no protection of person or property in the
State.
Question. And that even the conviction of criminals
did not tend to produce punishment?
Answer. In the first place, the juries, being composed
of colored people, as well as of white (parts of each), it
was difficult to indict anybody. The moment a question
of indictment came, there would be some difficulty of race
about it, I think there was none with the white people;
but, of course, the colored people had a strong predilection
for their own race, and they were not very clear in their
ideas of the difference between right and wrong. Then,
if the parties were indicted, it was very difficult to convict
them; and, if they were convicted, they were very sure to
be pardoned. I have known, in more than one instance,
where a man preferred a charge against a party, the accused was discharged by the grand-jury, and the accuser
indicted for false imprisonment, or something of that sort.
In Christ Church Parish, four indictments were found,
that my successor on the bench said were an outrage, and
he was a simon-pure Scott man. Some colored men had
been stealing some cattle, and the owner had them arrested
and taken before a justice of the peace, and they were
bound over for trial, the proof being very clear. The jury
were nearly all colored men, and were summoned by the
sheriff of my county-a man of very extreme partisan
views-Mr. Mackey, son of Dr. Mackey. The jury discharged the prisoners for stealing the cattle, and indicted
the two young planters for false imprisonment. The case
was tried at the last June session, at Charleston, by my
successor. I have information that it was not a singular
case. It has been repeatedly done there. In that case,
222 
J EDGE CARPENTER'S OPINION.
the judge charged the jury that there was no ground
at all.
Question. Would not a course of conduct of that sort
deter men from seeking the law as a means of protection?
Answer. Undoubtedly it would.
Question. You say that was not confined to one locality?
Answer. It occurred several times in my circuit, and I
had information that it occurred in other circuits.  I do
not want to be understood as justifying the proceedings
of these secret organizations. I do not think it was a
remedy for any thing; but in my opinion it was the condition of things which I have detailed that was the cause of
it. In my judgment, nothing could be further from a
cause for this organization than any hostility to the Federal Government in any of its departments. It had nothing more to do with the Federal Government than it had
to do with the Government of China. Whatever may
have been their reasons-whether well founded or ill
founded-they acted upon the idea that they were without
a government to protect them; on the contrary, that the
Government was inimical to the white people of the State
particularly, protecting their enemies-tie men who committed crimes against them-and rewarded them rather
than punishled them.   In my judgment, that was the
reason for forming that organization in South Carolina.
As I have said before, I do not approve of it, for I think it
was a remedy for nothing.
Question. In what way did they obtain and maintain
that sort of control?
Answer. They obtained the control originally by the
white people of South Carolina refusing to take any part
in the elections in the organization of the State.  These
men then went to the colored people, and said: " We  are
your friends; we are going into this thing, and have you
223
::.1.::.:.. 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
educate your children, and make every thing better for
you," and all that sort of thing. They got their confidence
and control. The white people did not go among them.
The colored people in that way were made inimical to the
white people, and led to think that their interests were antagonistic to the interests of the white people. The white
people held the property and what little money there was.
The colored people were taught by these men to believe
that the lands properly belonged to them and not to their
former masters; that the dwelling-houses and gin-houses,
and every thing else, belonged to them. I heard that repeatedly stated on the stump last summer, not only by
colored men, but by white men. Senator Beverly Nash,
a colored man, at Columbia, a very shrewd, sharp, keen
man, in a public speech to six or eight thousand men, said
to them: " The reformers complain of taxes being too
high. I tell you they are not high enough. I want them
taxed until they put these lands back where they belong,
into the hands of those who worked for them.  You toiled
for them, you labored for them, and were sold to pay for
them, and you ought to have them." That was the keynote of the whole stumping from the sea-coast to the mountains. Some of the people did not say any thing about it;
but it was a fierce contest from beginning to end, to array
race against race. Our efforts were directed to harmonize
the two races for political purposes and legal purposes.
Question. In your canvass, you and the men associated
with you had in view the harmonizing of the races?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Did not your safety consist in that course being pursued?
Answer. I think the safety of the whole State and of
the people of the State consisted in it. If, after the election was over, these appeals had been kept up to the col
:.....   -
224 
JUDGE CARPENTER (CONTINUED).
ored people, and they had acted upon these suggestions, of
course there could have been nothing but war. A great
many gin-houses and dwelling-houses have been burned
by the colored men during the last two or three years in
South Carolina.
Question. Do you think that was done at the instigation of others?
Answer. Well, I do not say that, because I do not
know it.
Question. Why were they burned, do you think?
Answer. I think it was oftener the result of personal
ill-will toward the owners than a preconcerted political
design. I am not prepared to think there was any concerted design about it. Of course, an uncultivated wild
man, like the uncultivated colored man of South Carolina,
subject to very strong passions and impressions, if he
thinks he has been particularly ill-treated or any thing of
that sort, is very likely to take a fearful revenge. While
they are a very gentle people, when they do commit crime
they are more barbarous than any people I have seen. In
several cases of murder that came before me, sometimes
the man would have twenty bullet-wounds.  In one case in
particular, not only was his head cut off, but hlie had four
or five stabs in the right breast; his heart was literally
pierced four or five times, stabbed through and through,
and then he was disemboweled. They are a very peaceable people naturally, and, if let alone, they wanit to do
right; but when their passions overcome them, and they
commit crime, they do it with a vengeance.
Question. Their ignorance, their peculiar disposition,
and their liability to be miisled, are well known to the
white people of South Carolina?
Answer. Yes, sir. Still there is a great deal of kind
feeling toward them on the part of the white people, and a
225 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
great deal of kind feeling toward the whites from a large
class of the colored people. The colored men who are not
either local or State politicians, who have any intelligence,
generally feel very kind to the whites, and come to them
if they want any help about any thing-if they want to
borrow any money or get any help of that sort. A great
many of them have very excellent credit, and are of good
character.
Question. What I am coming to is this: with these
known characteristics of the negro, their ignorance and
liability to be imposed upon, and the opinion generally
prevailing throughout the State of the way in which they
have been induced to have hard feelings toward the
whites, will you state to the committee what effect it had
upon the people and their sense of security when the Governor armed them as State militia, and refused to arm the
white people in the same way?
Answer. Well, sir, the people felt they had no security
at all; that they might be attacked at any time.   I do not
think myself that this militia was ever organized for the
purpose of any war on the white people.  It was organized
to carry the election through the colored vote; to intimidate and overawe the colored people.  I do not think they
ever intended to have any fight with the white people,
but, of course, the white people felt very anxious upon the
subject, hearing companies of colored men drilling and
training every night in each village of two or three thousand inhabitants, and the people were perfectly unprotected.  In the time of election there was a great deal of
whisky about, for the colored man is not very much unlike
his white brother in that respect; he is very fond of whisky.
And it is very astonishing to me the paucity of casualties
and crimes that occurred in consequence of it.  They
seemed to content themselves with carrying out the ideas
226 
JUDGE CARPENTER (CONTINUED).
of the party. On the day of election they were parading,
and then, not where there were many white people, but in
the dense colored districts, they overawed and drove off
everybody that was obnoxious to them. I think that was
the original purpose of the militia, for certainly Governor
Scott was in the army too long to suppose that this militia
would be effective in any contest with the white people of
South Carolina.  I think he has expressed himself very
fully on that subject; he knows that they are of no consequence for that purpose.
Question. Was there any thing in the militia law that
prevented the organization of white men as militia, and
their being armed as such
Answer. No, sir.  Under the law the Governor had the
right to receive any organization for militia purposes; the
Governor had to receive them. Any who chose could propose to form a company, but they had to ask the Governor
to receive them.  If he received them, very well; they
could go on organizing; but it was made a very serious offense to drill and organize a company without the permission of the Governor.  When a white company was organized and offered to the Governor he' invariably refused it,
until very lately. I believe he received a white company
from Columbia, and perhaps one from some other place.
It was made a highly-penal offense to organize a company
without the permission of the Governor.  All other mnilltary organizations were prohibited, except those he accepted, and he accepted nothing but colored militia.
Question. They were generally comrposed of his own
political friends?
Answeri. Entirely so.
227 
CHAPTER XXVIII.
On the Supply of Arms and Ammunition for the Alleged Defense
of the State.-The Governor's Pardons.
GOVERNOR SCOTT, being concerned about his
reelection in 1870, set on foot various contrivances
to make it secure.
They are described in the following extracts.
The substance of the State investigation committee's report, composed of men of Governor Scott's
own party, is, that he spent $374,000 of the public money to get himself rechosen. His -Republican adversary in the canvass, IHon. R. B. Carpeniter, adds that he emptied the prisons with the
same object, and filled all his offices with corrupt
mercenaries, and otherwise showed himself a
master in the art of South Carolina politics.
The committee, composed of Republicans, on
page 10, speaking of the cost and management
of "Scott's militia," say:
This part of the work of the present administration, so
severely and extendedly criticised at home and abroad, so
fruitful of suspicion and opposition among a large portion
of our citizens, as well as dissatisfaction to another class, 
SCOTT'S MILITIA.
while intended for the preservation of tihe peace, lives, and
property of the people of the State, has not only failed in
its avowed object, and been managed unwisely, but also
proved an expensive experiment, as the charges for such
purpose will show the total outlay for the enrollment and
organization of the militia, now entirely without organization, the armed force now virtually disarmed, the purchase
of arms, one thousand Winchester rifles, now scattered
throughout the thirty-one counties of the State, the sumi
of $171,009.93.
The committee are, ill this connection, forced to the acknowledgment, however unpleasant or humiliating it may
be to such as are connected with the fact, that the moneys
expended (as vouchers indicated the direction in which the
funds were used) were not all paid out for such purposes.
In the enrollment and organization of the militia, as well
as in the armed force employed by the Governor, there
was a most ample and complete opportunity for ambitious
political partisans and aspirants for reelection to arm and
equip a force of personal friends and advocates, and pay
them "when on service the same pay and allowances as
are given to officers and soldiers of the same grade in the
Army of the United States," not out of their own purse,
but " out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated; the State to be reimbursed by a special tax
upon any county into which the Governor was compelled
to send an armed force." And to carry out these provisions, the Governor was to exercise all the powers conferred upon him by an act entitled " An act to suppress
insurrection and rebellion," passed September 22, 1808.
Besides, as he was to be the judge of the existence, in any
county, of the necessity of an armed force " to preserve the
peace," and it was his own prerogative to commission the
officers and subalterns, and indorse their pay accounts.
229 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
An enrolled, organized, and armed retinue of personal
favorites or advocates were commissioned and placed upon
his staff at the proper time, as well as ordered to form conmpanies, battalions, regiments, and brigades, throughout the
State, into what was called "The National Guard," alias
"Scott's militia." This statement is made from undoubted
evidence in the premises, and cannot be controverted.
The election in 1870 was carried, in part, by the means
herein stated, and while some portion of the. funds appropriated for the purposes specified were, no doubt, expended
for the same, the largest amounts were diverted to secure
the reelection of Robert K. Scott, as Governor of South
Carolina, but not for the success of the Republican party.
That the Adjutant-General has not known of this diversion
of special appropriations, cannot be possible; for, being a
memuber of the House of Representatives, the Speaker of
the House, and signer of all bills passed both branches of
the General Assembly, he must be familiar with the laws
passed; and, as the elected Adjutant-General, the principal staff-officer of the State, whose recognized duty is to
assist thie commander-in-chlief in the details of military
organization, and promulgate his orders, he certainly cannot claim entire ignorance in the use of the funds which
are here referred to.
Nor is this all. A more glaring robbery of the Treasury,
for personal ambition and gain, has been perpetrated, and
will be presented in that part of this report which covers
the investigation of the financial agent's books and papers.
The enormous sum of $202,602.66 (two hundred and two
thousand six hundred and two dollars and sixty-six cents)
not appearing anywhere upon the State Treasurer's books,
and never intended for the public eye or ear, has been
paid, in addition to the amount already aggregated, for the
alteration of arms, which swells the account to $374,696.59.
.230 
JUDGE CARPENTER'S OPINION.
Ioll. R.  B. Carpenter  defined his political
)osition as follows:
It was very well known to the convention that nominated me that I had voted for General Grant, and I had
voted for Lincoln for his second term.  It was equally well
known that I had been appointed by Chief-Justice Chase
register of bankruptcy, and equally well known that I had
been elected by the first Legislature of South Carolina as
judge; that they nominated me as a Republican, and
knew I was one.
He tlien went on in reply to the interrogatoiesc of the congressional commnittee, and said:
Another cause of discontent was the lavish pardons
that were issued by the Governor.   Men of the worst
character, men who had committed the worst possible
crimes, were pardoned and turned loose without any application from anybody, as far as was known; from no responsible parties, certainly; no application from either the judge
or solicitor.  They were pardoned and turned loose to prey
again upon the community. Another cause of discontent
was the character of persons appointed to fill offices under
the Executive. The constitution of Soutti Carolina gives the
Executive vast patronage, or at least the Legislature have assumed it, whether the constitution gives it or not. All the
county auditors, county treasurers, trial justices-as they
are called there-justices of the peace, and most of thle local
officers, are appointed by the Governor. As a rule they
are utterly incompetent, and as a rule they are utterly corrupt. Another cause of discontent was the organization
and arming of the militia of the State, and the furnishing
them with ammunition.  The militia were confined to colored people.  Numerous applications were made by white
companies to be received into the State militia, but they
231 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
were all rejected.  Some twenty thousand colored people in different parts of the State were armed with Winchester and Springfield and other rifles, and near the
time of election ammunition was distributed to them, as
if upon the eve of battle. They were sometimes very
offensive, and did a great deal of mischief. It was very
offensive to the white people that these colored people
should be armed, and sometimes depredations were committed by them; that was a serious cause of discontent.
Another cause was the election law itself, and the manner
in which it was executed. I do not remember the number
of sections in the statute.  It is a long act, and from the
beginning to the end no penalty is provided for any violation of its provisions. That act places the whole power
of conducting the elections in the hands of the three commissioners for each county, to be appointed by the Governor, without confirmation by the Senate. These commissioners, thus appointed, were required, in the first
place, to designate and fix the places of voting.  They appointed the managers to receive the votes-to have the
ballot-boxes at the polls and receive the votes. The law
then required the managers, within three days after the
election, to return these ballot-boxes sealed up to the commissioners.  The commissioners were allowed by law tenl
days to count these ballots and to make their returns of the
persons elected. They began their career as commissioners
by being very generally themselves candidates for office;
and they had to decide whether they were elected or their
competitors. Before the appointment of the commissioners,
however, the Executive Committee of the Reform party requested Governor Scott to appoint one reform commissioner for each county.  That he declined to do, and, so
far as I am apprised, he appointed commissioners only
from his own party and his own friends. These commis
232 
JUDGE CARPENTER CONTINUED).
sioners commenced operations by fixing the voting-places
upon the banks of rivers, and upon the sea-coast, where
the colored population is very dense; while farther back
from the rivers, and along the upper part of the State, the
white population predominates, but is very scattered. As
a rule, the commissioners fixed the voting-places to accommodate the colored people, and to be as far off and inconvenient for the white people as they could. In certain
counties the white people would have to travel forty miles
to the nearest precinct to vote. Then it was proposed to
the Executive Committee of the Republican party to have
a committee of each party remain with the ballot-boxes
and see that they were not tampered with. This they declined to do, and, except for the city of Charleston, they
kept these ballot-boxes in their private houses, from the
time of the election until the time they made their returns.
That the ballot-boxes were stuffed after the election is no
longer a matter of opinion.  In some of the counties it has
been a matter of judicial investigation. For instance, in
the county of Beaufort there was a trial of the commissioners for that county, charged with stuffing the ballotboxes after the election.  The trial was before his honor
Judge Bond, of the Circuit Court of the United States.
The jury was composed of an equal number of black men
and white men. They found the defendants guilty, and
Judge Bond sentenced them to tle penitentiary for two
years each.  In counties where it was utterly impossible
there should have been a majority for Governor Scott, in
my opinion the ballot-boxes were stuffed, the record falsified, and the will of the people entirely thwarted. I cannot suppose that a law of that sort was made for any other
purpose than to keep the party in power, to prolong their
power, whether the people voted for them or not. I have
already stated that a large number of criminals of the worst
233 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
description were pardoned by Governor Scott. I think
the pardons came much the thickest just before the October elections of last year.
Question. What was the date of your election?
Answer. It was on the 19th of October.
Question. The Governor's official statement of pardons
by him reaches to the 1st of October?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. From your knowledge and information, what
would be your opinion as to the number of pardons issued
between that date and the date of the election?
Answer. I could not state. I saw several persons that
I had myself sentenced to the penitentiary, who were pardoned just before the election; I met them on the streets;
three or four of a very bad description of men-men who
had been sentenced to the penitentiary for a series of years.
I do not know, but I judged, from seeing three or four that
I knew myself, that there must have been a great many all
over the State; and that is my information firom other people.  I think the official statement of pardons from October 1, 1869, to October 1, 1870, gives the number as two
hundred and five, out of some four hundred and eighty who
were in the penitentiary. Hiow many of them had been
convicted during that time, and how many of them were
there before, I cannot say. I do not know whether the official record, if I had it, would enable me to say. According to General Stolbrand's report, who is the keeper of the
penitentiary, two hundred and five prisoners in the penitentiary were pardoned between October 1, 1869, and October 1, 1870, out of some four hundred and eighty who were
confined in the penitentiary during that year. I think the
pardons were largely in excess of the convictions; I think
there must have been more of them there before Governor
Scott exercised the pardoning power with so great liberality.
234 
THE MINORITY REPORT.
Question. And you think from the 1st of October to
the day of election it continued quite liberally?
Answer. Quite liberally, I should think.
Question. But the number you cannot give?
Answer. I cannot give the number for the State.
Question. What effect did the free exercise of pardon
have upon the sense of security of all the people throughout the State?
Answer. The same effect it would have anywhere, that
there was very little security for life and property in the
country.
Question. What effect did it have upon their reliance
upon the courts for the proper redress of grievances?
Answer. It had a very bad effect, as I think such an indiscriminate use of the pardoning power will have everywhere. If men can commit crimes with impunity, of
course no one will be afraid to do so, especially in such a
population as ours.
The minority of the joint committee of Congress, in reporting on this case, say:
The only authority to be found upon the statute-books
of South Carolina for the purchase of arms is in the joint
resolutions of February 8 and March 16, 1869. The resolution of February 8th authorizes the Governor to employ
an armed force to preserve the peace, to consist of one hundred men or more, if in his opinion needed, "who shall be
fully armed and equipped." The resolution of March 16th
authorizes him "to purchase two thousand stands of arms,"
to be paid for "out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated." It will thus be seen that the Governor's power to purchase arms, in any contingency, is limited to two thousand stands; and that this power is still
235 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
further restricted to the amount of funds in the Treasury
not otherwise appropriated by law. And yet, Governor
Scott, in the face of this clearly-limited authority, purchased ten thousand stands of breech-loading and Winchester rifles, and one million of centre-coppered cartridges.
On the subject of pardons, we give the following from Judge Poland's report, and Governor
Scott's own explanation:
The pardoning power has been exercised freely by the
Executive, and unless we bear in mind the peculiar state
of society existing in this State, the party divisions so
nearly separating the whites and the blacks, the severity
of punishment visited upon the negroes for trivial offenses,
the temptation which would naturally present itself to give
credence to their wrongs when asking for clemency, the
proportion of pardons to the number of convictions seems
at once to establish that the power has been abused. That
it has been exercised in mistake in many instances, as it
often is in all the States, we cannot doubt, after hearing
of the acts of some of the pardoned convicts. But we are
not prepared to give the sweeping condemnation.of this
feature of the administration that some of its other features deserve.
The reports for the year 1870 show that, in that year
there were in the penitentiary five hundred and seventyfive convicts, and two hundred and five pardons were
granted.   The Governor's message thus accounts for a
large number of them:
"Such as are enumerated as pardoned mainly consisted of those whose terms were about to expire, and who
were recommended for their good behavior by the superintendent. By anticipating the expiration of their sen
236 
GOVERNOR SCOTT'S EXPLANATION.
tence, the criminal generally avoids the deprivation of his
civil rights, many of which would be forfeited by their
consummation. The effect of this leniency is stated by
the superintendent as being most salutary in promoting
good behavior among the convicts, and enabling him, from
day to day, to designate large numbers of the convicts for
work as laborers, teamsters, and mechanics, without the
presence of a guard outside the inclosure of the prison,
and not one has betrayed the confidence thus reposed in
them."
237 
CHIIAPTER XXIX.
Cumulative Voting as a Remedy.
WE have heretofore suggested minority representation or cumulative voting as one of the
resources of the whites of South Carolina in their
present straits. On an examination of the proceedings of the Tax-payers' Convention, held at
Columbia in May, 1871, it appears the subject
was brought up for consideration in that body,
and was favorably received.
We extract fromn the report of the committee
on the subject:
The committee to whom was referred the question of
the expediency of the cumulative system of voting, or such
system as will protect the rights of minorities, ask leave to
make the following report:
The means of protecting the rights of minorities, in
representative forms of government, has for a long period
engaged the attention of thoughtful minds. In Europe, as
well as in this country, this question has been fully discussed, and a satisfactory solution anxiously sought. So
defective is the system of mere majority rule-so flagrant
are the abuses to which it is liable, that the necessity for 
CUMULATIVE VOTING.
its modification strikes with force everyimpartial observer.
It is obvious that the needs of good government require
that some effective organism be devised for the protection
of minorities. Your committee deem it unniecessary to
enter upon an analysis of the several schemes of proportional representation that have been suggested. Enough
to say that, in our judgment, the plan of cumulative voting best accomplishes the end in view-best makes representation coextensive with the whole body of electors.
This plan obtains wherever there is more than one officer
to be elected. It gives the elector as many votes as there
are persons to be chosen, and allows him to bestow his
votes upon the whole number, or to cumulate them upon any
number less than the whole. The effect of this system is
to give to each political interest in a community a representation proportionate to its numerical strength. Under its
operation the true office of suffrage, which is to collect the
sense of a whole community, will be subserved. There is
effected neither exclusive representation of the majority,
nor exclusive representation of the minority; but proportional representation. The proposition is that the cumulative system secures thorough and general representation
of all the interests in the political body.
Your committee are of the opinion that, abstractly
considered, proportional representation is a great governmental principle-a wise, just measure of reform, and one
absolutely necessary to make unlimited suffrage consistent
with peace, order, and security. It enters the political
body as a saving, a conserving element. It comes to leaven
the lump of democracy, and to give the essence of genu ine republicanism, which is, briefly stated, thorough and
general representation. But if proportional representa tion be an admirable system in any government founded
upon the popular will, your committee hold that the plan
239. 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
is peculiarly applicable to such a condition of society as
this State now presents.
Your committee are gratified to state that this system
of cumulative voting, which is destined to play so important a part in the development-of. popular rule, has already been put in operation.  "'Proposed, exp]ained, and
advocated in the first instance by James Garth Marshall, a
subject of the crown of Great Britain," this plan has been
championed by ex-Senator Buckalew, of this country, has
been incorporated in the revised constitution of Illinois,
and has been put upon its trial in a Pennsylvania town.
Recently the subject has attracted unusual interest in the
South.  In our own State it has been received with great
favor, and lifted above the plane of political partyism.
GOVERNOR SCOTT.
In reply to an inquiry from your committee as to his
opinion of minority representation, the Governor, was
clear and explicit in his indorsement of the plan, believing,
as he said, that it would do more to destroy prejudice,
prevent ill-feeling, and educate the majority, than any
event which could occur.
The Hion. George A. Trenholm, one of the
leading Conservatives of the State, sustained the
measure.
Mr. Trenholm said:
The principle of universal suffrage as a means of universal representation, commends itself to the approval of
right-minded men  in all countries.   Statesmen  oppose
themselves to it in vain. It lies at thIe very foundation of
every true republican government, and merits the support of all good citizens. It is not against universal suf
240 
MR. TRENIiHOLM'S REMARKS.
frage that we remonstrate; it is against the imperfect application of it.  That mode of practical application prevailing, not in South Carolina alone, but in every State in this
Union save one; a method by which, instead of universal
representation, the entire minority, no matter how large
that minority may be, is deprived of all representation
whatsoever. It is against this great defect, this monstrous
inequality, that we remonstrate, and for which we would
institute a remedy. The one recommended by the committee is not new; it has been extensively discussed both
in Europe and in this country, and has met with the sanction of many eminent men. In England, that great country, whence we derive many of the most valued lessons
of political government; amid an aristocracy of birth,
wealth and education, the principle of minority representation has been recognized and incorporated in the Constitution. This was done in 1867; and again in 1870 it was
reaffirmed upon a motion to repeal the act of 1867. This
motion was opposed by such statesmen as Bright and
Gladstone, and defeated. What was the act of 1867, and
why did those holding the supremacy in legislative power
make the concession it involved?  It gave one representative to the minority in every county entitled to three
members of Parliament, and it wisely anticipated the time
when universal suffrage would unsettle the tenure of political power, when those who now ruled the country might
themselves be thrown into the minority.
This principle of minority representation is what is recommended by the committee, and it comes with the sanction of an authority that is of the highest dignity with
those on whom the decision of this question devolves. If
there is any name revered above all others by the Republicans, it is that of Mr. Lincoln.  And what do we perceive
in th    e  State from which Mr. Lincoln came?  The Legis             11
241 
THE PIROSTRATE STATE.
lature of Illinois is represented to have been as incompetent as ours-representation as imperfect; and to cure
these evils, the same as we are suffering from, they
adopted in their election laws the very principle recommended by your committee-the principle of cumulative
voting. By a vote of one hundred thousand majority, the
people resolved to give to the minority that representation
without which universal suffrage is not universal representation.
Having then relinquished much, for which so many of
our people suffered and bled and died, may we not call
upon our fellow-citizens in the other States to sustain us in
this necessary measure of protection?  I believe, sir, that
they will applaud and support this measure. I do not distrust the people of the North; I have confidence in their
sense of justice.
Mr. Chamberlain, the Republican AttorneyGeneral, spoke in the convention, on this subject,
as follows:
In the first place, gentlemen, it is necessary to modify
the absolute control which a mere numerical majority has
obtained over the State, and to secure for intelligence and
property a proper representation in the affairs of the government. And, looking about for some device which
without violence to the fundamental principle upon which
our government rests, will bring relief from the grievances
which afflict our people, I have fixed upon this system of
cumulative voting, because it is not only just in its theory,
but it will prove itself right in its results.  It takes nothing
from the rights of the majority. It gives them a predominating control, but not an absolute disposition of the entire
fortunes of the State. Do you believe for a moment, then,
when you put into an ignorant Assembly, many of whom
242 
MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S REMARKS.
can neither read nor write, forty-seven gentlemen, whom
I might select in this body, that you would not shame
them into decency, or frighten them from crime? (Applause.)  Who does not know  that the presence of one
honest man puts to flight a band of robbers?  Now, according to this system, you deny nothing which belongs to
the majority, but, from the moment you place in the Lower
House forty-seven of your ablest citizens, bad legislation
will cease, and good legislation will begin. Are the opponents of this measure on this floor so intense in their devotion to political ideas that they will refuse a proposition
which gives to them a representation of one-third, and a
corresponding influence in public affairs? I hope not; for
when, by force of political success, they have gathered a
majority of the State to their side, there will then be left
to us who differ the same rights we are now according to
them.  Is it not fair, just, right?  Its immediate results
are relief from present grievances, and it points to the
future, where all interests, no matter what may be the
political fortunes of the State, will be protected.
Now, I say to you, gentlemen, give us who have to do
with making this practicable, something that we can
honestly take back to our political associates, and, in the
name of the property and intelligence of the State, secure
this right. - Let there be peace between us now, and prosperity hereafter. Strengthen our hands, who desire to do
what in us lies, to make South Carolina safe for every man
in his life, career, and private interests. I say, again, it is
right. Grant it.
243 
CHAPTER XXX.
Governor Scott on the Legislature.-The Committee of the Legis   lature on Governor Scott.-Attorney-General Chamberlain on
them both.
THERE seems to be no want of evidence of the
corruption of South Carolina public officers. We
have their unbiassed testimony in relation to one
another. In what follows we have what Governor Scott thinks and says of the Legislature, what
a committee of that body think and say of him,
as well as of other prominent public functionaries,
and what the Attorney-General says of both, and
of the situation generally.
Speaking of the Governor's political operations in enrolling the militia to promote his own
election, the legislative committee of investigation say:
The committee are, in this connection, forced to the
acknowledgment, however unpleasant or humiliating it
may be to such as are connected with the fact, that the
moneys expended (as vouchers indicated the direction in
which the funds were used) were not all paid out for such
purposes. In the enrollment and organization of the militia,
as well as in the armed force employed by the Governor, 
GOVERNOR. SCOTT'S OPINION.
there was a most ample and complete opportunity for ambitious political partisans and aspirants for reelection to
arm and equip a force of personal friends and advocates,
and pay them "when on service the same pay and allowances as are given to officers and soldiers of the same grade
in the Army of the United States," not out of their own
purse, but " out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated."
Governor Scott on his part utters the following incidental opinion of the Legislature:
STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIrvE DEPARTMENT,
COLUMBIA, March7 7, 1871. f
To the Honorable the Senate of South Carolina:
GENTLEMEN: I return to your honorable body, without
my approval, an act appropriating $265,000 for legislative
expenses, for the following reasons, to wit:
First, I regard the expenditure of the money already
appropriated during this session, and the sum included in
this bill, amounting in the aggregate to $400,000, as simply
enormous for one session of the Legislature. It is beyond
the comprehension of any one how the General Assembly
could legitimately expend one-half that amount of money.
I cannot refrain from expressing the opinion that there
must have been some secret agency in fixing the sum at
that amount, as a number of the members, both of the
House and Senate, have expressed their surprise at finding
the appropriation changed from $125,000, as it was believed to have passed, to that of $265,000. I regret the
necessity of returning the act without my approval, on the
last day of the session, but to do otherwise I feel would
be recreant to the duties imposed upon me, by becoming a
party to a wrong by which the whole people would be
made to suffer.
245 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
I might give many other cogent reasons why this bill
should not become a law, but time prevents my doing
other than giving it my unqualified disapproval, believing
that the members of the General Assembly will themselves
correct an error that must have crept into the bill clandestinelv in its enrollment.
Very respectfully,
ROBERT K. SCOTT, Governor.
LEGISLATIVE COMIITTEE.
On page 962 of the printed South Carolina
testimony will be found a letter from the present
Attorney-General of the State, Hion. D. IH Chamberlain, a pronounced Republican and a native
of Massachusetts; who, as he says in his testimony, "carried his sword to the South, and,
when the war was over, remained there." This
letter is dated May 5, 1871, and is addressed to
Colonel W. L. Trenholm, late Secretary of the
Treasury of the Confbderacy. This gentleman
says:
I propose to lay aside all partisanship, and sinply to
state facts as I conceive them to exist.  Let us look at our
State when the reconstruction acts first took effect in 1868.
A social revolution had been accomplished; an entire
reversal of the political relations of most of our people
had ensued. The class which formerly held all the political powers of our State were stripped of all.
The class which had formerly been less than citizens,
with no political power or social position, were made the sole
depositaries of the political powers of the State. I refer
now to the practical results, not to theories. The numeri
246 
D. H. CHIAMBERLAIN'S LETTER.
cal relations of the two races here were such that one
race, under the new laws, held absolute political control
of the State.
The attitude and action of both races, under these new
conditions, while not unnatural, was, I must think, unwise
and unfortunate. One race stood aloft and haughtily refused to seek the confidence of the race which was just
entering on its new powers; while the other race quickly
grasped all the political power which the new order of
things had placed within their reach.
From the nature of the case, the one race were devoid of political experience, of all or nearly all education,
and depended mainly for all these qualities upon those
who, for the most part, chanced to have drifted here from
other States, or who, in very rare instances, being former
residents of the State, now allied themselves with the other
race. No man of common prudence, or who was even
slightly familiar with the working of social forces, could
have then failed to see that the elements which went to
compose the now dominant party were not of the kind
which produce public virtue and honor, or which could
long secure even public order and peace.
I make all just allowance for exceptional cases of individual character, but I say that the result to be expected,
from the very nature of the situation in 1868, was that a
scramble for office would ensue among the members of the
party in power, which, again, from the nature of the case,
must result in filling the offices of the State, local and general, with men of no capacity, and little honesty or desire
to really serve the public.
The nation had approved the reconstruction measures,
not because they seemed to be free of danger, nor because
they were blind to the very grave possibilities of future
evils, but in the hope that the one race, wearing its new
247 
THILE PROSTRATE STATE.
laurels, and using its new powers with modesty and forbearance, would gradually remove the prejudices and enlist
the sympathies and cooperation of the other race, until a
fair degree of political homogeneity should be reached,
and race lines should cease to mark the limits of political
parties.
Three years have passed, and the result is-what?  Incompetency, dishonesty, corruption in all its forms, have
"advanced their miscreated fronts;" have put to flight
the small remnant that opposed them, and now rule the
party which rules the State.
You may imagine the chagrin with which I make this
statement. Truth alone compels it. My eyes see it-all
my senses testify to the startling and sad fact. I can never
be indifferent to any thing which touches the fair fame of
that great national party to which all my deepest convictions attach me, and I repel the libel which the party bearing that name in this State is daily pouring upon us. I am
a Republican by habit, by conviction, by association; but
my republicanism is not, I trust, composed solely of equal
parts of ignorance and rapacity. Such is the plain statement of the present condition of the dominant party of
our State.
Being afterward examined  by thle joint coinmittee of Congress, he testified as follows:
Question. Give us some account of the abuses of the
State government of South Carolina.
Answer. I think that, in the first place, the misfortune
was that the dominant party was necessarily made up of
such materials as it was. Of course, negro suffrage was
not acceptable to the former ruling population of the State,
and they refused to have any thing to do with it. That
left a very large numerical majority in the hands of the
48 
MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S TESTIMONY.
negroes of the State, and of the few white men who had
gone there at the close of the war, and the very few white
men who had been residents of the State before and had
joined the Republican party. The material for creating
public officers in those elements was necessarily very poor.
A large number of incompetent and dishonest local
officers were elected throughout the State. Their incapacity and dishonesty was displayed very conspicuously.
In many counties their local affairs have been very much
mismanaged; and in the Legislature we have had a great
deal of corruption.
Question. If I understand you, then, the whole State
government of South Carolina, including all its local details, is in a terrible condition in regard to a fair administration of the public affairs of the State?
Answer. That is a little different from the statement I
would make. I would make this statement: that I think
there are very many abuses existing now in the State,
growing out of the incompetency and dishonesty of Republican office-holders.
Question. You have no personal knowledge of corruption on the part of the office-holders of South Carolina,
have you?
Answer. Well, sir, I think I have personal knowledge;
that is, as much personal knowledge as I have of any thing
that I have not seen with my own eyes.
Question. Outside of the city of Columbia?
Answer. Oh, yes, sir.
Question. Have you seen any thing of it outside of the
city of Columbia?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. What?
Answer. Do you want that I should mention where and
who?
249 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
Question. I do not care to go into an examination as
to the names of parties.
Answer. I can illustrate what I mean.  In the county
of Newberry, at the last term of court just now closed,
two trial justices were indicted for malfeasance in office,
and also two of the three county commissioners: the other
had run away; they were all four convicted and are now
in jail.  For instance, the county commissioners were convicted of purchasing supplies, and the party who sold the
supplies charged two or three prices for them, and the excess was divided with the county commissioners.   The
trial justices were convicted of extortion and oppression.
Question. That is a strong Republican county?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Were you present at the trial?
Answer. No, sir.
Question. Was it tried before a jury of colored men?
Answer. Of colored and white men.
Question. A mixed jury?
Answer. A mixed jury.
Question. Then there is no difficulty in convicting these
criminals?
Answer. I think not.
Question. Then why the necessity for using these extraordinary means of Ku-klux  outrages  to  put  them
down?
Answer. That is very true; I think there is no need of it.
Question. Do you know any other instance in which
there has been conviction or indictment.
Answer. The three county commissioners of Charleston
County are under indictment.
Question. You mean the city of Charleston?
Answer. The county of Charleston, which embraces
considerable outlying territory.
250 
CttAMBERLAIN'S TESTIMONY (CONTINUED). 251
Question. Do you know of any others?
Answer. In the county of Williamnsburgli, I am not sure
whether indictments have been found or not. But a day
or two before I left I saw the report of the grand-jury, in
which they made similar statements in reference to the
conduct of the county officers there; but I will not say
that bills of indictment were returned; my impression is
that they were.
Question. Have not the Governor and the Executive
officers under him been charged with corruption?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. To any great extent?
Answer. Oh, yes, sir; very gross charges of corruption
have been made. 
CHAPTER XXXI.
Taxation.
THE pressure of taxation upon South Carolina
is readily exhibited when put in contrast with
what it was before the war.
The taxable values of the State in 1860 were
$490,000,000.   Then the average annual State
and county tax was $400,000, which included interest on the public debt. Deducting the value
of the slaves, then estimated at $174,000,000, and
we have left the sum of $316,000,000. But the
decline in all values in the State has reduced
the value of this $316,000,000 to $184,000,000 in
1870.
The annual State and county tax now averages about  $2,000,000, without reckoning  irregularities or frauds in expenditure, which go
constantly to swell this sumI; and without any
appropriations for interest on the public debt.
The contrast stands thus:
Valuation before the war................. $490,000,000
Taxation before the war..................    400,000
Present valuation........................ 184,000,000
Present taxation...........................2,000,000 
TAX-PAYERS' REPORT.
Shlowing that, while the valuation of the property of the State is now a little over one-third of
what it was then, the annual State and county
taxes are five times as great.
To this charge is to be added the municipal
taxation of the towns.
The State Tax-payers' Convention, held in
1871, made these comments, amnon g others, on this
subject:
The taxable value of the property of the State, in 1860,
was $490,000,000, and the taxes only $392,000; now the
taxable property has been reduced to $184,000,000, and
the taxes increased to $2,000,000; so, you perceive, while
your property has been reduced to less than half its former
value, your taxes have been increased 500 per cent.!
The first great wrong is the fearful and unnecessary increase of the public debt An extraordinary increase
is admitted on all hands. The people who have to pay
these obligations; those, I mean, who own tihe property
and pay the taxes, are entitled to know the amount and
character of the public indebtedness; not merely the actual debt, but all contingent liabilities. A painful uncertainty rests over this matter.  Let it be probed to the bottom. If the debt has been over-stated, it will be a great
relief to the people to know it. When a clear light is let
in upon this matter, we shall know where we are, and be
the better able to face the situation and its responsibilities.
Next, the applications of the public moneys have been
wild, reckless, and profligate. This is without question;
and perhaps never in the history of any people has this
profligacy presented a bolder or more shameless front.
Corruption here does not hide itself in secret places and
253 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
dark corners; it stalks abroad, it flaunts itself in the light
of day, it assumes the part and bearing of virtue, and
openly boasts of its achievements.  The end of these things,
if not rebuked and checked, will be not only utter demoralization, but certain bankruptcy and ruin.
Tile direct logical result of increased debt and reckless
expenditures is excessive taxation. Not only is the annual tax increased manifold, but, by act of the late session
of the Legislature, two tax levies are required to be paid
within the limits of one year. This is an intolerable burden, and is calculated, even if it be not intended, to bring
about a wide-spread confiscation of property. And the
worst feature of the matter is the curious and anomalous
fact, without parallel in the history of any representative
government, that they who lay the taxes do not pay them,
and that they who are to pay them have no voice in the
laying of them.
TAXATION AND PREPRESENTATION.
The Executive Committee, to wh%om was referred the
grievance of taxation without representation in the taxing
body, and to suggest a remedy for the existing evil, beg
leave to report, that the present political and financial condition of South Carolina is a forcible and melancholy illustration of the evils resulting from taxation without representation.... Mir. Lathers said: I cannot refrain from
calling your attention to the expenditures of the county
commissioners of Charleston for the current year ending
October last, amounting to $238,841. The Governor in
his messages, transmitting the same to the Legislature,
properly remarks that "these amounts are of startling
magnitude, and it is worthy of consideration whether they
cannot be materially reduced." I believe an investigation
connected with these frauds has been had or proposed.
254 
MINORITY REPORT.
ITEMS.
Roads and bridges............................ $108,225
Public buildings.............................. 28,679
Constables and trial justices................... 38,866
Sheriff, clerk of county, and coroner........... 62,671
Total................................... $238,841
Perhaps before the war these items would have reached
$50,000 to $75,000. Trial justices, State constables, and
herds of expensive and useless officials, are rapidly corrupting the people and eating out their substance.
When we reflect that this is the expense of but one of
the thirty-odd counties of the State, spending over a quarter of a million under the power of a mere commission,
we need not be surprised that the taxes of the State this
year reach over $2,000,000, against less than $400,000
before the war.  As the tax to be paid this year aggregates over $4,000,000, as it includes two levies which is
tenfold the amount paid before the war in any one year,
we may well be constrained to look to our rulers for some
mitigation, and ask for a convention of tax-payers to consider the grave issues which the ignorance and fraud of
the Legislature are precipitating upon us in a practical confiscation of our property by taxation.
The following is from the minority report of
the joint committee of Congress:
Salaries in South Carolina for the Fiscal Year ending
September 30, 1855, as per Report of the Controller    General for 1855.
Governor...............................
Governor's private secretary..............
Governor's messenger....................
Chancellors and judges...................
255
$3,500 00
500 00
250 00
30,000 00 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
Brought forward........................$.
Attorney-General and solicitors............
Clerks, etc., Court of Appeals.............
Libraries of Court of Appeals.............
State Reporter..........................,
Controller-General..........................2  
Two Treasurers...........................           
Commissioner of Public Works............
Adjutant and Inspector General...........
Quartermaster-General....................
Arsenal-keepers and physician.............
Secretary of State........................
Port physician...........................
Controller's clerk.......................
Assessor of St. Philip's and St. Michael's...
President and seven professors South Caro      lina College.......................
Officers South Carolina College............
lina (College........................ 20,500 00
Officers South Carolina College.............. 1,700 00
Total.............................. $79,450  00
Salaries year ending October 31, 1870....... $205,439 18
Salaries year ending September 30, 1855....    79,450 00
Difference......................... $125,989 18
Gross Amount of Taxes assessed and collected in South
Carolina for Five Years prior to the War, to wit,
from 1851 to 1855, inclusive.
Gross taxes, under act of 1850, for year
1851............................ $515,678 88
Gross taxes, under act of 1851, for year
1852.............................. 349,931 28
Gross taxes, under act of 1852, for year
1853............................. 361,775 S7
256
$34,250 00
5,600 00
1,700 00
400 00
1,500 00
2,000 00
3,600 00
150 00
2,500 00
500 00
1,900 00
800 00
800 00
750 00
800 00 
BEFORE THiE WAR.
Brought forward...................... $1,227,386 03
Gross taxes, under act of 1853, for year
1854............................. 429,975 99
Gross taxes, under act of 1854, for year
1855............................. 399,739 67
Total for five years...............    $2,057,101 69
This was a levy upon a property basis of $490,000,000,
including slaves at a low valuation. The special tax upon
slaves for the year 1855 was the sum of $231,117.60-in
the year 1870, upon a property basis, at a high valuation,
excluding, of course, the value of the emancipated slave
population of $174,000,000, there was levied and collected
the sum of $2,265,047, or $107,945.31 more than the aggregate taxation, on more than double the amount of property, for five consecutive years prior to the war.
The assessment of the real property of the State, made
prior to the sitting of that convention, showed a valuation
of $70,507,075, on which it would have required a fraction
over three per cent. taxes to pay the expenses of the State
government, under the provisions of that constitution, to
say nothing about county and Federal taxation. Prior to
the war, the current rate of taxation was about one-half
per cent. But when the whole complex element of change
is fully understood and appreciated, as to the depreciation
of real property in South Carolina since the war, and the
constantly lessening resources of the people to meet this
increasing annual drain upon them, the difference is still
greater and more striking; as, for example, take an item
of real estate worth before the war $20,000. The onehalf per cent. of taxation before the war would be the
sum of $100.  Under the rate of taxation fixed by the
constitution, it would require the sum of $600 to pay the
257 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
taxes on the same property. The relative proportions for
the two periods would stand as one to six. But even this
statement does not cover all the contingencies of value
and taxation. The property valued before the war at $20,000 has now only a value of $6,000. Before the war a
tax of one-half per cent. upon its latter valuation would
produce the sum of only $30; but to realize the $600,
would require a taxation at the rate of ten per cent., so
that, taking into joint consideration the depreciation of
the property, and the great increase in the rate of taxation,
the proportion will, in fact, stand as one to twenty.
On this subject we have the following testimony of Judge Carpenter:
Question. State how the tax on the real estate of South
Carolina is imposed; what it is now as compared with
what it was four years ago. State your general knowledge
in regard to taxation in the State.
Answer. The property is assessed by the auditor of each
county, and a return of the assessment is made to the
State Auditor. The board of equalization then examines
the returns from each county, and adds to or detracts from
the amount at which the property is assessed. This board,
without seeing the property or knowing any thing about
it, receives complaints from persons assessed; or, if they
think the assessment too low in a county, they do as they
did in Orangeburg; they quadrupled the amount of taxation in Orangeburg; they said it was not enough.
Que8tion. Without seeing the property at all?
Answer. Yes, sir; without seeing it.  It was done by
the board of equalization at Columbia. They made it four
times what it had been assessed at, and they doubled it
in a great many counties. There were a very few coun
258 
JUDGE CARPENTER'S TESTIMONY.
ties where they did not add something, and if they diminished it in any county I do not know where. The property of South Carolina is assessed and taxed in round
numbers at $180,000,000. I do not think it would sell in
any market for $100,000,000, for South Carolina has vast
tracts of poor land. I think property is assessed there at
about twice its value.
Question. On an average?
Answer. Yes, sir. I will instance one case in Clarendon, where a tract of land had been offered two years for
$5,000, and they assessed it at $15,000, and the owner
could not get the board of equalization to do any thing
about it. Taxes seemed to be assessed with a view to the
supposed necessities of the State for revenue, rather than
to the value of property.
Question. A sweeping assessment made in particular
localities, without any knowledge of the property at all?
Answer. Yes, sir. The tax assessed upon South Carolina this year for State purposes is over $4,000,000.
Question. For State purposes alone?
Answer. The State tax is over $4,000,000 this year.
Question. UTp to 1866 and 1867, what was the general
taxation in South Carolina for State purposes?
Answer. I could not tell you any thing about 1866 and
1867, for we were then under a military government.
Prior to the war, the taxable property of the State was
about $480,000,000, against $180,000,000 now; and I
think the taxes raised for State purposes averaged about
$400,000.
Question. And the tax is now about ten times that
much?
Answer. Well, I must state, in justice to all parties,
when I say that the tax is over $4,000,000 this year for
State purposes, that they have crowded two years into
259 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
one.  Of course the tax for last year was due and collectable by law this year. The Legislature passed an act
making this year's taxes due and collectable this year also.
It was a different system from that we have had. When I
say that over $4,000,000 is levied this year for State taxes,
I mean to say that they are trying to collect two years'
taxes in one.
Question. In the present condition of the State, what
effect has that upon the property of the people?
Answer. It is very depressing.
By Mr. VAN TRuMP:
Question. How do you account for the state of facts
which you say exists in relation to your taxes?
Answer. Some property is taxed about right, but others
five times too much.
Question. Is that a matter of favoritism toward certain
people, or how is it?
Answer. I will state the facts, and leave you to draw
your own inference. There is a committee, or a board, appointed, tax commissioners I think theyare called; a board
of equalization; they receive the reports of the county
assessors, and then they decide that such a man must pay
so much on his land, and another man pay so much on his.
Question. Is this board of equalization frequently made
up of negroes?
Answer. I believe most of them  are negroes.  They
meet together, and, without seeing anybody at all, decide
that such a man must pay so much and another man so
much. The way it is so unequally distributed is this: Adjoining plantations are sometimes very different in value,
as you all know. A man may own a plantation on a large
creek or river, and it may be worth twenty dollars an acre;
while his neighbor may own an adjoining plantation, but
it may be of poor land not worth one dollar an acre.
260 
UNEQUAL TAXATION.
But this board of equalization cannot tell those facts; they
are there in their office, and merely make out their statements, and decide that the tax must be so much, and it
has to be paid. And in that way a man who has a plantation worth $30,000 may not pay any more tax than the
man whose plantation is only worth $5,000.
261 
CIIAPTER xXIF.
On the Character of the Low-Country Negro.
TaE  following testimony was elicited by the
congressional committee in regard to the character and capacity of the low-country negro, from
two gentlemen of standing and experience.
Judge Carpenter, of South Carolina, speaks as
follows:
Question. Of course you have been quite familiar with
the negro population of South Carolina. How do they
compare in intelligence with the colored population of the
border States, such as the colored population of Maryland
and Kentucky? I know you are familiar with the colored
population of Kentucky, as well as myself. How does the
colored population of South Carolina compare in intelligence with the colored population in these States; and, if
they are less intelligent, what, in your opinion, is the cause
of it?
Answer. If you except a portion of the colored population of the city of Charleston   Question. I mean outside of cities?
Answer. Except a portion of the old colored population
there, that have been free for a long i)eriod of years, a
great many of whom are people of intelligence, good char 
CHARACTER OF THE BLACKS.
a.cter, reputation for probity and honesty, and even men
of property-if you except them, the rest are very much
less enlightened than the colored people of the border
States. However, the farther you move north in the
State, the nearer you approach the mountains, and, in the
mountains themselves, they are more intelligent than on
the sea-coast or on the rivers. The colored population
upon the sea-coast and upon the rivers, in point of intelligence, is just as slightly removed from the animal creation
as it is conceivable for a man to be.  I venture to say that
no gentleman here would be able to understand one of
them upon the witness-stand, or would be able to know
what he meant. I have had to exercise more patience and
more ingenuity in that particular, to have more explanations and interpretations, to find out what a witness meant
to say, who had witnessed a murder, for instance, than to
understand any thing else in my life. They talk a very
outlandish idiom, utterly unknown to me. They are very
ignorant, and still have very strong passions, and these
bad men lead them just as a man would drive or lead a
flock of sheep.
Question. That brings me to the question which I desired to ask, whether or not that character of population,
ignorant and degraded as you have described them, are not
very easily controlled and led by persons who acquire their
confidence?
Answer. Very easily.  They believe any thing they are
told, no matter how ridiculous. As an instance of that I
will say, that two of the most serious charges made against
me by the colored population when I was a candidate for
Governor were, first, that if I was elected I would reduce
them again to slavery; and, second, failing to do that, I
would not allow their wives and daughters to wear hoop skirts.
26'3 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
Question. How did they get the latter idea?
Answer. It does not matter how ridiculous a thing is;
they believe any thing. They are a very credulous set.
Those men have as absolute control over them as any
slave-holder ever had over his slaves before slavery was
abolished.
Questions. In what way did they obtain and maintain
that sort of control?
Answer. They obtained the control originally by the
whilte people of South Carolina refusing to take any part
in the elections in the organization of the State. These
men then went to the colored people and said, " We are
your friends; we are going into this thing, and have you
educate your children, and make every thing better for
you," and all that sort of thing. They got their confidence
and control. The white people did not go among them.
The colored people in that way were made inimical to the
white people, and led to think that their interests were
antagonistic to the interests of the white people.  The
white people held the property and what little money there
was. The colored people were taught by these men to believe that the lands properly belonged to them, and not to
their former masters; that the dwelling-houses, and ginhouses, and every thing else, belonged to them. I heard
that repeatedly stated on the stump last summer, not only
by colored men, but by white men. Senator Beverly Nash,
a colored man, at Columbia, a very shrewd, sharp, keen
man, in a public speech to six or eight thousand men, said
to them:  "The reformers complain of taxes being too
high. I tell you that they are not high enough. I want
them taxed until they put these lands back where they belong, into the hands of those who worked for them. You
toiled for them, you labored for them, and were sold to
pay for them, and you ought to have them." That was
264 
GORDON'S OPINION.
the key-note of the whole stumping, from the sea-coast to
the mountains. Some of the people did not say any thing
about it; but it was a fierce contest, from beginning to
end, to array race against race. Our efforts were directed
to harmonize the two races for political purposes and legal
purposes.
General John B. Gordon, lately elected United States Senator from Georgia, said:
Those negroes upon the coast are very different from
the negroes in Middle and Upper Gebrgia; they are almost
an entirely different race of people.  They are excessively
ignorant. The intelligence of the negro in the middle and
upper counties of Georgia is very much the same as the
intelligence of the negro here or anywhere over the country. But in the southern portion of the State, where there
is a large negro belt, as we call it, the negroes have absolutely a language of their own. If a negro from WTashington were to talk with a negro from Atlanta, or the upper
portion of Georgia, their language would be the same;
they would use about the same words to express the same
ideas. But it is not so on the coast. If a negro were transported from this city to the coast of Georgia, he would not
understand at all a great deal that many of the negroes of
that coast would say.  Their old masters, who grew up
with them, do understand their language; but it is a peculiar language. It is different from the language of the
negroes in any other portion of our State, or any other
portion of the South, except along the Atlantic belt.
Question. Is that class of negroes still there?
Answer. They are there now, and in very large numbers, upon the Sea Islands and upon the rice-plantations.
They are very ignorant.  They are entirely diffeient from
265
I Q — 
THE PROSTRATE STATE
the negroes from the middle section of the State upward.
The latter are much more intelligent than those along the
sea-coast.
Question. As to thosenegroes along the black belt, whom
you have described as having their own peculiar language
and religious superstitions, with what sort of intelligence
do they seem to exercise the right of suffrage?  How are
they controlled and managed?
Answer. Well, sir, they had just begun voting when I
left there; they were at that time, and are still, so far as
my knowledge of the State extends-I know it is true of a
large portion of the State-controlled almost entirely by
the League organizations. The negroes were introduced
very early into what they called the Union Leagues; and
they were controlled by those Leagues. They seemed to be
under the impression that by voting they were to acquire
some sort of property, and were influenced mainly by ideas
of that sort, which had been instilled into them by these
people who had gone there among them. I, however,
know less about the particular influence brought to bear
now, in that part of the State, with regard to voting, than
in any other part, because I have been in that portion
of the State less since they have been voting.  When I
left there they had just commenced voting.
We append to these views some hIopeful observations made in the Tax-payers' Convention
in 18S1, whihel reflect the sentiments of many
worthy people.   Air. Dudley said:
The day is fast approaching when the native Carolinian
and the colored man will be in perfect accord in all measures for their mutual protection, and the thirty thousand
votes which have spread such ruin over the State will turn
their batteries against those who have selfishly destroyed
266 
KIND-HEARTED  AND  AFFECTIONATE.             267
the people to enrich themselves, and make the colored race
poorelr still, who were poor enough before. As a race,
they are kind-hearted and affectionate, and desire to lean
upon those with whom they played in their childhood.
With natures thus inclined, our task of perfect reconciliation is easy. Let us be not only just to them, but generous. The obligation is upon us. They gave us their
wocrk during the war, when an obvious self-interest might
have stimulated their hostility. They protected our families by all the means in their power, when the white man
was on the distant battle-field, and his home was without
other protectors.  Surely, if ever there was a debt, founded on the strongest moral obligation, it will be found in
the humble claims which the colored man now makes upon
his former ovwners, and this is, only that they may be protected in the rights which the results of the war have given
them-rights, which they never demanded for themselves,
but have only accepted at the hands of others.
UTpon this easy condition, this thirty thousand majority,
heretofore hostile, will melt away, as a huge glacier under
the warming rays of the sun. It may not be the work of
a moment, but the result is only a question of time. Already is it commenced, and the relations between the races
are now far more cordial than they have ever been since
the war. Now, let this convention, composed as it is of
the heroes of many a battle-field, rise up to the moral
heroism of proclaiming to the world their unalterable purpose to repay the kindness and fidelity of the colored man
by an unreserved acknowledgment of his newly-acquired
rights, and such a pledge, coming from the representative
men of South Carolina, who have never yet learned to
equivocate or evade, will be respected by all those who
are capable of appreciating properly the obligations of personal honor. 
CHAPTER XXXIJI.
Southern Sentiment since the War.
IT is an injurious and unfounded supposition,
which is the cause of much prejudice at the North,
that there is still a considerable body of people in
the South who are passionately inimical to the
Government, and who would, if they could, break
up the existing state of things and restore slavery.
We have elsewhere stated our convictions
that a large majority of the Southern people
never wanted to break up the Union and never
wanted war, and that this great body stands firm
to-day for peace, union, and emancipation, reenforced by an immense proportion of that remain(der who advocated secession. The traveler in
the Southl will inquire long and often before lie
will find a man who will advocate the restoration
of slavery. Such a one we have never found.
The great body of public sentiment on this questioni is undoubtedly echoed  in the views expressed in the Carolina Tax-payers' Convention
on several occasions, from which there was never
any dissent. They were briefly expressed by Mr.
Trenholm in the following language: 
GRANT'S TESTIMONY.
The people of the South stood up manfully during the
war, in the defence of their principles. They believed slavery to be an institution founded by the Author of all good,
for wise and gracious purposes; the pious and good entertained that belief; and, feeling their high responsibility,
struggled against the sentiment of the world. And, sir,
when that same Providence in an unexpected hour, and in
an unexpected manner, relieved us from this great charge,
the people of this State acquiesced in its decree. No man
believes that the restoration of slavery in this country is
possible or desirable. If such a possibility did exist, and
it were ever submitted to the vote of this convention, my
conviction is that not a voice would be raised in its favor.
The testimony of General Grant, who went
South after the war, has been too little heeded.
In his report to President Johnson he said:
IIEADQIYAuTERS ARMIES OF TiiE UNITED STATES.
WASHINGTON, D). C., December 18, 1865. 
To his Excellency ANDREw JOINsON,
President of the United States.
SiR: In reply to your note of the 16th inst., requesting a report from me, giving such information as I may be
possessed of, coming within the scope of the inquiries
made by the Senate of the United States in their resolution of the 12th inst., I have the honor to submit the following:
With your approval, and also that of the honorable
Secretary of War, I left Washington City on the 27th of
last month for the purpose of making a tour of inspection
through some of the Southern States, or States lately ill
rebellion, and to see what changes were necessary to be
made in the disposition of the military forces of the coutntry; how these forces could be reduced and expenses cur
269 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
tailed, etc., etc., and to learn, as far as possible, the feelings and intentions of the citizens of those States toward
the General Government.
Both in traveling and while stopping I saw much, and
conversed freely with the citizens of those States, as well
as with officers of the army who have been stationed
among them.
The following are the conclusions come to by me:
I am satisfied that the mass of the thinking men of
the South accept the present situation of affairs in good
faith. The questions which have heretofore divided the
sentiment of the people of the two sections-slavery and
State-rights, or the right of a State to secede from the
Union-they regard as having been settled forever by the
highest tribunal-arms-that man can resort to.
I was pleased to learn from the leading men whom I
met, that they not only accepted the decision arrived at as
final, but, now the smoke of battle has cleared away, and
time has been given for reflection, that this decision has
been a fortunate one for the whole country, they receiving
like benefits from it with those who opposed them in the
field and in council.
The presence of black troops, lately slaves, demoral.
izes labor, both by their advice and by furnishing in their
camps a resort for the freedmen for long distances around.
White troops generally excite no opposition, and therefore
a small number of them can maintain order in a given district. Colored troops must be kept in bodies sufficient to
defend themselves. It is not the thinking men who would
use violence toward any class of troops sent among them
by the General Government, but tihe ignorant in some places
might; and the late slave seems to be imbued with the idea
270 
CON:GRESSiONAL COAMIITTEE'S REPORT.   271
tlhat the property of his late master should by right belong
to him, or at least should have no protection from the colored soldier. There is danger of collisions being brought
on by such causes.
M4y observations lead me to the conclusion that the
citizens of the Southern States are anxious to return to
self-government within the Union as soon as possible; that
while reconstructing they want and require protection from
the Government; that they are in earnest in wishing to
do what they think is required by the Government, not
humiliating to them as citizens; and that, if such a course
were pointed out, they would pursue it in good faith. It is
to be regretted that there cannot be a greater comnmingling
at this time between the citizens of the two sections, and
particularly of those intrusted with the law-making power.
U.S. GRANT,
Lieutenant- General.
There has never been any reason, since the
writing of the foregoing letter, to show that any
modification of its judgment is required to express the facts of the situation from that time to
this. There certainly never was a civil war ended in which there were fewer after-claps than in
ours.
We quote a single item of testimony from the
congressional committee's report, that is valuable
on the point of whether the Southern people
wanted to go to war, which is elsewhere discussed. The committee say:
The leaders, hleaving supreme power at home, could not 
THE PROSTRATE STATE
bear to lose control of the national Government. They
rebelled, and drew the masses with them.
The common people tell us they did not want to fight,
but were obliged to follow their leaders. The same ruling
classes in other States, having produced a similar condition
of society, though none so bad, were for secession; the
people held back until South Carolina precipitated war.
Then the leaders in other States urged the people not to
abandon a " sister State," and State after State was hurled
into the conflict, the people knowing not now. Plain men
all over the South tell us they did not desire disunion nor
war, but were compelled to follow their " great leaders,"
and go " with their States" and with " the South."  It
was the system of government which prevailed in these
States, but most perfectly ia South Carolina, based on
slavery, with authority in the hands of a few, which caused
the war, with all its losses of blood and treasure.
Is it not time to bring to an end the punislment of the innocent many for the crimes of the
guilty few? 
272 
CHAPTER XXXIV.
On the Labor Question.-Labor abundant and cheap.-Its Ten   dency to reorganize itself.-A  Field for Philanthropic Exer   tion.
AGRICULTUIRAL labor is abundant in South
Carolina, and can be had by anybody, who is
willing to pay even less than a fair price for it.
The general impression that the old slave was
indolent, loitering, and lazy, is not well founded.
No man can be a witness to his movements in
the field without seeing that he is the best of
workers.   A[en and women alike are vigorous,
quick and athletic. The chief complaint of the
freedman as a laborer is that he is inconstant.
The testimony of the managers of the phosphateworks about Charleston,- who employ many of
them, is, that they average about four days' labor
in the week.  This is where they have the attractions of the town to distract them. In the couintry, where there are no shows and no whiskyshops, the temptations to vagrancy are less, and
the laborers are more steady.
We  have  elsewhere  shown  how  profitable 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
cotton-culture can be made in the vicinity of the
large towns. It is the simple fact that good lhusbandry will produce the results exhibited, that
demonstrates the profitableness of Soutti Carolina
farmuing.   These results can  be obtained anywhere, or a near approximation to them, wherever
there is good management. The commercial fertilizers in the market produce almost the same
result as the stable manures. Guano, and the
phosphates now dug in such abundance froln the
soil in the neighborhood of Charleston, answer
nearly every demand of high and productive cultivation. At all events, they furnish an adequate
basis for them. The question of successful and
profitable cotton-culture thus becomes mainly a
question of labor.
It is an important fact which must not be overlooked, that, in the South, as in the farming districts of Europe, a large proportion of the work
is done by females, whose labor in many cases is
as valuable as that of the men. A woman will
hoe as much cotton, and pickl as much, as a man.
And the same may be said of other field-work.
In a cotton-field to-day there were ten hands at
work; six were women and four were men.
They were ploughling, trenching, manuring, and
preparing for the seed. The women carried the
raw stable-manure from the heaps in baskets on
their heads, and spread it in the drills. It was
274 
THE NEGROES INDUSTRIOUS.
evident they were as efficient  workers as tihe
men, as active and as strong.  The work was in
this case being done by the day, and was rapidly
and faithfully performed.  Under the old slavesystem, labor was so systematized as to secure the
greatest amount of work, and leave the smallest
marg,in for shirking. A dozen ploughs, for example, were set in motion in a field; the file
leader being a first-rate hand, all were required
to follow with equal celerity and thoroughness. It
was the same in other branches of farm-work.
In hoeing and picking a certain stint was often
given, which afforded little time for idleness.
The foreman to-day in the field volunteered the
remark that the women can and do both hoe and
pick more cotton than the men, and with less
fatigue to themselves.  IHe added, "I never
saw the day when I could hoe as inuch cotton ni
my wife there."  The common stint is to hoe an
acre; now, anybody who goes over an acre of
ground with a hoe in a day, we may be sure will
have few idle moments.  The negro, male and
female, has been used to pushing work ahleadl
under the eye of drivers and overseers, and the
result is whatwe have depicted.
The Columbia cotton-raisers do not complain
of their fied-hands.   They can and do obtain
plenty of excellent laborers at low wages.  They
only have a way of saying that the blacks have
275 
THE PROSTRATE STATE.
to be looked after, as if any laborers did not.
But they admit they prefer hiring their people
by the day, instead of by piece or stint work.
They can procure any number for occasional or
steady labor for half a dollar a day here in Columbia, the laborers feeding themselves.  The
wages of the men hired by the year are one lhundred dollars per annum, and "found" by the
hirer.  At these rates labor is abundant in Columbia, and they are the basis of prices in the
rural districts.
But there is this complaint, that, while it is
easy enough to obtain laborers in the towns, it is
not so easy to do it in the country. This is probably true.  It is true everywhere; but the fault
is not with the workman any more than it is with
the employer. The black man is expected to
perform a large amount of toil for a small sum
of money; to put up with the meanest habitations, and, where he is fed by his employer, with
the most meagre fare.' In a word, he is expected
to be content to be housed as in the days of slavery, and to be restricted to the old plantation rations.  There is no care or thought for the material comforts of the black man or woman.  It
is easy to see, from the artless conversation of
the rural population, how little they get, and
how little they expect.' It is equally plain howl
inexacting and well disposed they are as a class,
276 
THE NEGRO HUTS.
and how much they would appreciate fair treatment.
There seems to be no reason to doubt that
an ample supply of faithful and steady laborers
could be readily obtained by any man who would
honestly undertake to farm in South Carolina, on
righteous principles, giving the negro such food
and such shelter as the dictates of an enlightened self-interest and a humane spirit would
prompt, and that this supply could be obtained
at the most reasonable rates.
The truth is, that the largest half of the
population of South Carolina live to-day in huts
and hovels, so poor that their total destruction,
from one end of the State to the other, would not
diminish the taxable values of the State onetenth of one per cent. They are worth no more
than so many dog-kennels or pigsties.  Under
any system which looks to putting the agricultural interests of the State on a permanent footing, here is one of the first things to be remedied,
and the improvement would not involve any serious charge. Sawed lumber is worth less to-day
in the interior of both the Carolinas than in the
State of P1aine, and colored mechanics abound.
We judge there is not a better opportunity
in the world to organize agricultural labor on a
paying basis to thie employer, and a satisfactory
one to the employed, than exists here to-day. To
277 
TIlE PROSTRATE STATE.
show how tractable is the material, and how
encouraging the prospect, it is only necessary to
point to the methods already existing on some of
the old plantations.  In some cases twenty or
more families of the old slaves combine and agree
to pay the owner so much money for the use of
the land.  They workl harmoniously, and divide
harmoniously at the end of the year. In one
such instance the little colony had bought several
hundred acres of plantation-land out of their surplus savings, and were beginning cultivation as
proprietors. This embryonic community system
has sprung naturally from the situation, and already unlocks several of its difficulties, and opens
a cheerful prospect of still further ameliorations.
Cotton-culture is such an easy means of bringing
into service the entire agricultural population,
including the women and children, that the reorganization of labor is not at all difficult.  This
fact, and the habits of field-work thus engendered, put the agriculture of this region on a
totally different footing from that of the North,
and assimilate it to that of the best-cultivated
foreign countries, where it is made so productive
and profitable.
Philanthropy could hardly find a more praiseworthy field for its exertions, or one more likely
to repay them in material returns, than to establish a model plantation in South Carolina, and so
278 
A BENIGNANT REVOLUTION.
demonstrate what can be done with this black
free labor, on a system of paying good wage,.
and of supplying good food and comfortable
shelter to the laborers. That the blacks would
feel a lively appreciation of such an effort in
their behalf, cannot admit of any doubt. The
benefits of a successful example of this sort
would be beyond computation.  By first eliminating the best portions of the colored population
and improving their physical condition, it would
pave the way for their social and moral elevation;
and thus perhaps might be laid the foundation
of a revolution in the character of the race, that
would lead to the most benignant results.
THE END.
279  
NOW READY, A NEW EDITION OF
THE HOUSEHOLD OF BOUVERIE.
BY THE AUTHOR OF " MIRiAM MONFORT."
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Mrs. Warfield's New Novel.
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BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE HOUSEHOLD OF BOTVERIE."
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By JOHN EvANs, F. R. S., F. S. A., Honorary Secretary of the Geological
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